"Well, I hardly know where to begin--events have moved so swiftly,
and such incredible things have happened. Even now I am in a daze,
for history is being made every hour--history for Mexico, for you,
and for me. I bring you good news and bad news; something to
startle you and set your brain in a whirl. I planned to send a
messenger ahead of me, and then I said: 'No, this is a crisis;
therefore no tongue but mine shall apprise her, no hand but mine
shall comfort her. Only a coward shrinks from the unpleasant; I
shall lighten her distress and awaken in her breast new hope, new
happiness'--"
"What do you mean?" Alaire inquired, sharply. "You say you bring
bad news?"
The general nodded. "In a way, terrible, shocking! And yet I look
beyond the immediate and see in it a blessing. So must you. To me
it spells the promise of my unspoken longings, my whispered
prayers." Noting his hearer's growing bewilderment, he laid a hand
familiarly upon her arm. "No matter how I tell you, it will be a
blow, for death is always sudden; it always finds us unprepared."
"Death? Who--is dead?"
"Restrain yourself. Allow for my clumsiness."
"Who? Please tell me?"
"Some one very close to you and very dear to you at one time.
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