e
serving-man with almost a light heart.

He led me out of the _sala_, not by the curtained way through which we
had come, but by a door opening on a little entry, and from that up a
stair, which was not at all like the stairway I had seen in the large
entrance hall. I had never been in a house so bewilderingly built. I
followed down halls that dwindled into passageways and so quickly did
my guide move, so far he kept in front of me that even when my blue bow
dropped from my hair pat upon the floor I dared not stoop to pick it up
for fear of losing sight of him. I kept on ascending unexpected little
steps; entered doors that opened abruptly as panels in the wall,
branched off into yet narrower halls, and finally was ushered into what
seemed a sort of anteroom, with only a few chairs furnishing it, and a
great extent of polished floor stretching out in front of me to a
curtain which hung across one whole side of it. There was a sweet
though rather close odor, which wrought powerfully upon my imagination.
Walking cautiously, since the floor seemed as slippery as glass, I
followed my conductor. He drew the curtain aside a little--enough to
let me slip through--said something in Spanish, some one musical word
which I did not understand, and the curtain closed behind me. I stood
there feeling like a doll, absurd, small and lost.

I was aware of a greater sense of air and sun than I had had since I
entered the house, of a farther extent of that shining floor, broken by
great opaque oblongs which absorbed light and gave out colors beautiful
and dim; of a uniform even interplay of color upon all sides of me, as
if the walls were hung with tapestry of one pattern; but all I was
really intensely conscious of was a seated figure. She was sitting
almost profile to me, with her back to the light, which fell splendidly
upon the full length of her hair, hanging quite to the floor. She was
wrapped in something silk, of two shifting colors, green and copper,
uncovering the neck and leaving a most beautiful arm bare to the
shoulder. A maid was brushing her hair, bending low with each measured
stroke. At my appearance she straightened, stopped, and stepped back.
It looked really as if she sank away into the shadow; and the Spanish
Woman rose and came toward me, holding out her hand. The colors in her
gown seemed fairly alive, and whether it was really a woven pattern of
copper serpents rushing through green water, or only an a