Dressed in gauze and muslin, like all Creoles, the young girl was ravishing, seated on a sofa like the beija flor in the chalice of a flower, especially at that moment when anger, suppressed and mastered with difficulty, caused her virgin bosom to palpitate, and covered her cheeks with a crimson flush, doña Laura had something seductive, and at the same time majestic about her, which imposed respect, and almost commanded veneration. Don Roque de Castelmelhor, notwithstanding the decision, and the formal intention he had manifested, could not resist the powerful charm of a beauty so noble and pure. His look fell before that of the young girl, which was filled with hatred and almost with contempt. "We have reached, Señorita," he said, "after great fatigues, the limit of the civilised countries of Brazil; for, if I do not deceive myself, the route it is now necessary to follow is hidden in deserts into which, before us, a few hardy explorers only had dared to venture. I think, then, that the time has come to exchange explanations frankly." Doña Laura smiled with disdain, and, interrupting him with a gesture: "As that situation, caballero," said she, with bitterness, "cannot be rendered clearer and more decided, I will spare you, if you wish it, the embarrassment of entering into certain details... Oh, do not interrupt me," said she, with vivacity, "here is the fact in a few words: my father, don Zeno Álvarez de Cabral, a descendant of one of the most illustrious conquerors of this country, a refugee in the environs of Buenos Aires, from reasons of which I am ignorant, but which doubtless little concern you, rendered hospitality to a lost traveller, who, in the middle of the night, during a frightful storm, presented himself at the door of his hacienda. That traveller was you, Señor, you, a descendant of a race not less illustrious than ours, since one of your ancestors was governor of Brazil. The name of the marquis, don Roque de Castelmelhor, offered to my father all the guarantees of honour and good faith he could desire; you were received, then, by the exile, not as a foreigner, not even as a compatriot, but as a friend and a brother. Our family became yours; all that is true, is it not?" "All that is true, Señorita," answered the marquis.