When he returned to the dining-room Uncle Licurgo looked in at the door
and asked:

"At what hour do you want the horse?"

"At no hour," answered Rey quickly.

"Then you are not going to-night?" said Dona Perfecta. "Well, it is
better to wait until to-morrow."

"I am not going to-morrow, either."

"When are you going, then?"

"We will see presently," said the young man coldly, looking at his aunt
with imperturbable calmness. "For the present I do not intend to go
away."

His eyes flashed forth a fierce challenge.

Dona Perfecta turned first red, then pale. She looked at the canon, who
had taken off his gold spectacles to wipe them, and then fixed her
eyes successively on each of the other persons in the room, including
Caballuco, who, entering shortly before, had seated himself on the
edge of a chair. Dona Perfecta looked at them as a general looks at
his trusty body-guard. Then she studied the thoughtful and serene
countenance of her nephew--of that enemy, who, by a strategic movement,
suddenly reappeared before her when she believed him to be in shameful
flight.