ed us to the front part of the
house, and throwing open the door of a large and very handsomely
furnished apartment, loudly announced us in Spanish as what I took to be
"the English hidalgos."

Don Manuel was awaiting us in this room, and on our entrance rose to
greet us with that lofty yet graceful courtesy which seems peculiar to
the Spaniard. Then, turning slightly, he said:

"Allow me, gentlemen, to present to you my daughter Antonia, the only
member of my family remaining to me. Antonia, these are two English
gentlemen who, I trust, will honour us so far as to remain our guests
for some time to come."

We duly bowed in response to her graceful curtsey, and her few words of
welcome, spoken in the most piquant and charming of broken English, and
then, I believe, went in to dinner. I say, I _believe_ we went in to
dinner on that eventful evening, because I know it was intended that we
should; but I have no recollection whatever of having partaken of the
meal. For the rest of that evening I was conscious of but one thing--
the presence of Antonia Carnero.

How shall I describe her?

She was of medium height, with a superbly moulded figure, neither too
stout nor too slim; a small well-poised head crowned with an immense
quantity of very dark wavy chestnut hair having a golden gleam where the
light fell upon it but black as night in its shadows; dark finely-arched
eyebrows surmounting a pair of perfectly glorious brilliant dark-brown
eyes, now sparkling with merriment and anon melting with deepest
tenderness; very long thick dark eyelashes; a nose the merest trifle
_retrousse_; a daintily-shaped mouth with full ripe ruddy lips; and a
prettily rounded chin with a well-developed dimple in its centre. Her
voice was musical as that of a bird; her complexion was a clear pale
olive; her movements were as graceful and unrestrained as those of a
gazelle; and she was only eighteen years of age, though she looked more
like two-and-twenty.

We were a very pleasant party at dinner that evening. Don Manuel was
simply perfect as a host, courteously and watchfully attentive to our
slightest wants, and frankness itself in his voluntary explanation of
the why and the wherefore of his establishment of himself in such an
out-of-the-way place. Antonia, whilst not taking any very prominent
part in the conversation, struck in now and then with a suggestive,
explanatory, or playful remark, showing that she was was both attentive