"I never said a word to you yet that I did not mean. Do you not like to hear the truth spoken to you?" "Yes, even if it be unpleasant." "And I like to speak the truth when it is pleasant to do so; when it is not I prefer to keep silent." "If you never speak anything but the truth to me we shall always be good friends, and I shall know how to interpret your silence." "Then we are good friends now, for I have never said a word to you that is not true. I am going away, and I do not know when I shall be back. I should be very sorry to go away leaving you angry at anything I had said to you." "You are going away! Where to?" "To Rio Janeiro. I arranged it this morning. If the captain of the English frigate which is at Monte Video will give me a passage I am going with Gordon, so I shall not lose him so soon as you will." "He does not know, at least he said nothing of it to me." "No, I have not told him yet. No one knows but you and my father." "Poor Dolores! she will be quite lonely, losing both you and Mr Gordon at once." "Not so lonely as you generally are. She has always plenty of people about her. If she saw you more often she would miss us less. Could you not come and pay Aunt Josefina a visit of a month or so, I know she wants you to do so?" "And leave papa all alone! Impossible!" "Then I will tell you what to do. Come and spend one day every week with Aunt Josefina. Lola often tells me that she wishes she could see more of you than she does." "Does she? Oh! I am so glad. I shall be here all day to-morrow till the evening, and then every Wednesday morning after this I will come in and spend the day with Doña Josefina. I am sure papa will let me if I ask him, and when I have a fixed day for coming then Lola will come too." "Then when I come back the Wednesdays will be an established custom, and I shall think that I have done something to give you a pleasure by suggesting it. Every Wednesday while I am away I shall think that you and Lola are together, and when she speaks of me you will think of me for a moment, and will remember that I am thinking of you." [7] The large comb at that time worn in Buenos Aires as in Spain, generally made of tortoise-shell, and sometimes two feet in width. [8] The fashion is never uncomfortable. CHAPTER II HOW DON GREGORIO LOPEZ A SECOND TIME SOUGHT AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION OF THE DAY In August there came an emissary from the Emperor Napoleon to Buenos Aires. Viceroy Liniers received this Frenchman very affably and the two held conferences together of which none knew the purport; but why this Frenchman had come was no secret to any one in Buenos Aires. He came on behalf of the Emperor Napoleon to invite the colonies of Spain to follow the example of their mother-country, telling them that Spaniards desired no longer that Bourbons should reign over them, but had welcomed with joy a new king whom he had chosen for them, his brother Joseph.