banian or a
Czech patois. This one seemed quite at home with Mallorquin. They
generally display the bare left third finger of the maiden; but even
when that critical digit is gold-fettered, you are not always satisfied
that they have ever called man husband. They always carry guide-books,
note tablets, patent medicines, and hand-satchel. They are very
reticent about their own affairs, and correspondingly curious about
yours. And finally, if one may hazard a generalizing guess, they mostly
seem to hail either from the New England States or the south of
Scotland.

Probably because I showed no desire to cultivate her acquaintance, she
began to throw out stray questions for my answering, not about the
cream and mauve lustre-ware--about which I knew nothing--but on other
points.

"It's a strange thing," said she, "how nations like the Spanish which
have beautiful languages are always cursed with harsh voices to speak
them with. I wonder if the converse holds true?" So I had to mention
Norsk and Norwegians.

And, again: "All the peasantry in Mallorca seem to know one tune and
one only, in a minor key, with a compass of three whole tones. It is
not unmusical, but, like the _sereno's_ chant, it is hard to
catch." As I happened to know the air, the least I could do was to dot
it down in her note-book when she asked me to. The book flew open as
she passed it across the deal table-top, and showed the name "Hortensia
Mary Cromwell" written on the flyleaf.

And then she found out that we had come across from Port Mahon in a
yacht, and discovered besides that I was a sailor and vagabond by
trade, and fairly drew me. To an appreciative listener I can always
talk about the sea, and the sights of the sea, and the smells of the
sea, and what those men do who make their livelihood by journeying
across the big waters. And as this Cromwell woman spoke back
intelligently about these matters, I liked her, and sat there talking
when the others went out to make a call. Nor did the experience weary
me, for when they returned after midnight, we were sitting
_vis-a-vis_, with our feet on the edge of the _brazero_,
talking still.

There was no nonsense about her. She was a salted traveller, and had
seen and done many things, and we had a score of tastes and sympathies
in common. It isn't often I'd give two sous to speak to any woman a
second time; but I liked her, and said, when she went upstairs, that I
hoped we'd meet again, meaning what