You will find there a storekeeper, one
Florentino Blanco--a Blanco in heart as well. Tell him I sent you to
him, and ask him to procure you an English passport from the capital;
after which it will be safe for you to travel to Montevideo. Should
you ever be identified as a follower of mine, you can invent some story
to account for your presence in my force. When I remember that botanical
lecture you once delivered, also some other matters, I am convinced
that you are not devoid of imagination."
After giving some further kind advice, he bade me good night, leaving
me with a strangely unpleasant conviction in my mind that we had changed
characters for the nonce, and that I had bungled as much in my new
part as I had formerly done in my old. He had been sincerity itself,
while I, picking up the discarded mask, had tied it on, probably upside
down, for it made me feel excessively uncomfortable during our
interview. To make matters worse, I was also sure that it had quite
failed to hide my countenance, and that he knew as well as I knew
myself the real cause of the change he had noticed in me.
These disagreeable reflections did not trouble me long, and then I
began to feel considerable excitement at the prospect of a brush with
the government troops. My thoughts kept me awake most of the night;
still, next morning, when the trumpet sounded its shrill reveille close
at hand, I rose quickly, and in a much more cheerful mood than I had
known of late.
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