my honesty is equal to my
freedom. The first charge, therefore, I have to impose upon you is, that
you put implicit confidence in me; for lovers who begin by being
jealous, are either silly or deficient in confidence."

"You must have Satan himself within you, little one," said the old
gipsy; "why you talk like a bachelor of Salamanca. You know all about
love and jealousy and confidence. How is this? You make me look like a
fool, and I stand listening to you as to a person possessed, who talks
Latin without knowing it."

"Hold your peace, grandmother," replied Preciosa; "and know that all the
things you have heard me say are mere trifles to the many greater truths
that remain in my breast."

All that Preciosa said, and the sound sense she displayed, added fuel
to the flame that burned in the breast of the enamoured cavalier.
Finally, it was arranged that they should meet in the same place on that
day sennight, when he would report how matters stood with him, and they
would have had time to inquire into the truth of what he had told them.
The young gentleman then took out a brocaded purse in which he said
there were a hundred gold crowns, and gave it to the old woman; but
Preciosa would by no means consent that she should take them.

"Hold your tongue, nina," said her grandmother; "the best proof this
senor has given of his submission, is in thus having yielded up his arms
to us in token of surrender. To give, upon whatever occasion it may be,
is always the sign of a generous heart. Moreover, I do not choose that
the gitanas should lose, through my fault, the reputation they have had
for long ages of being greedy of lucre. Would you have me lose a hundred
crowns, Preciosa? A hundred crowns in gold that one may stitch up in the
hem of a petticoat not worth two reals, and keep them there as one holds
a rent-charge on the pastures of Estramadura! Suppose that any of our
children, grandchildren, or relations should fall by any mischance into
the hands of justice, is there any eloquence so sure to touch the ears
of the judge as the music of these crowns when they fall into his purse?
Three times, for three different offences, I have seen myself all but
mounted on the ass to be whipped; but once I got myself off by means of
a silver mug, another time by a pearl necklace, and the third time with
the help of forty pieces of eight, which I exchanged for quartos,
throwing twenty reals into the bargain. Look you, nina, ours is