e
are who do not disdain to write for the gipsies, as there are those who
invent miracles for the pretended blind, and go snacks with them in what
they gain from charitable believers.

During her childhood, Preciosa lived in different parts of Castile; but
in her sixteenth year her grandmother brought her to Madrid, to the
usual camping-ground of the gipsies, in the fields of Santa Barbara.
Madrid seemed to her the most likely place to find customers; for there
everything is bought and sold. Preciosa made her first appearance in the
capital on the festival of Santa Anna, the patroness of the city, when
she took part in a dance performed by eight gitanas, with one gitano, an
excellent dancer, to lead them. The others were all very well, but such
was the elegance of Preciosa, that she fascinated the eyes of all the
spectators. Amidst the sound of the tambourine and castanets, in the
heat of the dance, a murmur of admiration arose for the beauty and grace
of Preciosa; but when they heard her sing--for the dance was accompanied
with song--the fame of the gitana reached its highest point; and by
common consent the jewel offered as the prize of the best dancer in that
festival was adjudged to her. After the usual dance in the church of
Santa Maria, before the image of the glorious Santa Anna, Preciosa
caught up a tambourine, well furnished with bells, and having cleared a
wide circle around her with pirouettes of exceeding lightness, she sang
a hymn to the patroness of the day. It was the admiration of all who
heard her. Some said, "God bless the girl!" Others, "'Tis a pity that
this maiden is a gitana: truly she deserves to be the daughter of some
great lord!" Others more coarsely observed, "Let the wench grow up, and
she will show you pretty tricks; she is closing the meshes of a very
nice net to fish for hearts." Another more good-natured but ill-bred
and stupid, seeing her foot it so lightly, "Keep it up! keep it up!
Courage, darling! Grind the dust to atoms!" "Never fear," she answered,
without losing a step; "I'll grind it to atoms."

At the vespers and feast of Santa Anna Preciosa was somewhat fatigued;
but so celebrated had she become for beauty, wit, and discretion, as
well as for her dancing, that nothing else was talked of throughout the
capital. A fortnight afterwards, she returned to Madrid, with three
other girls, provided with their tambourines and a new dance, besides a
new stock of romances and songs, but al