er more of them. The girl was a rip, and there was an end
of it.

He did not blame himself in the least for having kissed a rip--once.
There was nothing in that. But he had kissed her twice--and that
second kiss had given significance to the first. To think of it made
him sore all over; it implied a tender relation, it made him seem the
girl's lover. Why, it almost justified that sick-faced, grinning
rascal, whose staring eyes had shocked him out of his senses. And what
a damned fool he had made of himself with the crucifix! He ground his
teeth together as he cursed himself for a sentimental idiot.

For the rest of the way it was Gil Perez who cried up the quest--until
he was curtly told by his master to talk about something else; and then
Gil could have bitten his tongue off for saying a word too much.

A couple of days at the Escorial, with nothing of Manuela to interfere,
served Manvers to recover his tone. Before he was in the capital he
was again that good and happy traveller, to whom all things come well
in their seasons, to whom the seasons of all things are the seasons at
which they come. He liked the bustle and flaunt of Madrid, he liked
its brazen front, its crowded _carreras_, and appetite for shows.
There was hardly a day when the windows of the Puerta del Sol had not
carpets on their balconies. Files of halberdiers went daily to and
from the Palace and the Atocha, escorting some gilded, swinging coach;
and every time the Madrilenos serried and craned their heads. "_Viva
Isabella!_" "_Abajo Don Carlos!_" or sometimes the other way about, the
cries went up. Politics buzzed all about the square in the mornings;
evening brimmed the cafes.

Manvers resumed his soul, became again the amused observer. Gil Perez
bided his time, and contented himself with being the perfect
body-servant, which he undoubtedly was.

On the first Sunday after arrival, without any order, he laid before
his master a ticket for the _corrida_, such a one as comported with his
dignity; but not until he was sure of his ground did he presume to
discuss the gory spectacle. Then, at dinner, he discovered that
Manvers had been more interested in the spectators than the fray, and
allowed himself free discourse. The Queen and the Court, the _alcalde_
and the Prime Minister, the _manolos_ and _manolas_--he had plenty to
say, and to leave unsaid. He just glanced at the
performers--impossible to omit the _espada_--Corchuelo, the fi