"Sit down, Don George, sit down." He absolutely forced a cigar on
me. "I am extremely distressed. That--I mean Dona Rita is
undoubtedly on her way to Tolosa. This is very frightful."
I must say, however, that there was in the man some sense of duty.
He mastered his private fears. After some cogitation he murmured:
"There is another way of getting the news to Headquarters. Suppose
you write me a formal letter just stating the facts, the
unfortunate facts, which I will be able to forward. There is an
agent of ours, a fellow I have been employing for purchasing
supplies, a perfectly honest man. He is coming here from the north
by the ten o'clock train with some papers for me of a confidential
nature. I was rather embarrassed about it. It wouldn't do for him
to get into any sort of trouble. He is not very intelligent. I
wonder, Don George, whether you would consent to meet him at the
station and take care of him generally till to-morrow. I don't
like the idea of him going about alone. Then, to-morrow night, we
would send him on to Tolosa by the west coast route, with the news;
and then he can also call on Dona Rita who will no doubt be already
there. . . ." He became again distracted all in a moment and
actually went so far as to wring his fat hands. "Oh, yes, she will
be there!" he exclaimed in most pathetic accents.
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