s. This
delay, however, does not necessarily cause a postponement of their
matrimonial relations in other respects--as, indeed, the reverend
father informed me! Other interesting matters and views of men (and
women) and their customs the _padre_ unfolded as we went along, drawn
from his professional experience, and recounted, perhaps, with more
freedom to a foreigner who understood his language, and doubtless
rendered of more facile delivery by the frequent investigations of the
contents of the bottles which he made as the day wore on.

As evening approached my coach halted at a small village at the foot of
a range of hills which intersected the desert, in order that the mules
might water. The inhabitants of the place, eager for the least
distraction, approached; and, learning that a _padre_ was within the
vehicle, the women and girls crowded round to receive the good man's
benediction and kiss his hand, which he graciously extended from the
carriage window. But the throng was considerable, and our stay short,
and it seemed that many of them would not be able to kiss the brown
hand of the priest. And now I absolve myself from having done it on
purpose! My own hand lay upon the sill of the window upon my side of
the coach, and suddenly I felt the pressure of a pair of lips upon it!
Looking out, I saw that some of the girls and women had come round to
that side of the vehicle, and, doubtless, supposing that I was also a
padre, had begun to kiss my hand. A certain feeling of pity or delicacy
caused me to refrain from removing it--let them be happy in thinking
they were also the recipient of some attention; and so I left it there.
No one peered into the gloom of the vehicle's interior, or the supposed
_padre_ would have been discovered as a clean-shaven young Englishman,
dressed, not in priestly black and cassock, but in riding garments! And
when the vehicle started I did not consider it necessary to inform my
companion of the _role_ I had unwittingly played.

But the day's adventures were not over. In crossing the dry bed of an
_arroyo_ a wheel gave way and the coach overturned, fortunately for me
on the side of the _padre_! Had it been otherwise the weight of the
good priest might have caused me much inconvenience; but as it was I
fell _upon_ him. It was in no irreverent spirit that I afterwards
cogitated that, at least on one occasion of my life, the Romish Church
had interposed between me and injury! And as the priest