themselves. Conyngham replaced the two letters in his pocket and
almost immediately asked:

'Do you know anyone called Barenna in Ronda, senorita?' thereby
proving that General Espartero would do ill to give him an
appointment requiring even the earliest rudiments of diplomacy.

'Julia Barenna is my cousin. Her mother was my mother's sister. Do
you know them, Senor Conyngham?'

'Oh no,' answered Conyngham, truthfully enough. 'I met a man who
knows them. Do they live in Ronda?'

'No; their house is on the Cordova road, about half a league from
the Customs station.'

Estella was not by nature curious, and asked no questions. Some who
knew the Barennas would have been glad to claim acquaintance with
General Vincente and his daughter, but could not do so. For the
Captain-General moved in a circle not far removed from the Queen
Regent herself, and mixed but little in the society of Ronda, where,
for the time being, he held a command.

Conyngham required no further information, and in a few moments
dismissed the letter from his mind. Events seemed for him to have
moved rapidly within the last few days, and the world of roadside
inns and casual acquaintance into which he had stepped on his
arrival in Spain was quite another from that in which Estella moved
at Ronda.