. I have got something like it in an old CANCIONERO I picked
up at a bookstall in Boston. But," she added, with a gasp of reminiscent
satisfaction, "that's not like HIM! Oh, no! HE is decidedly original.
Heavens! yes."

I turned away in some discomfiture to join Enriquez, who was calmly
awaiting me, with a cigarette in his mouth, outside the sala. Yet he
looked so unconscious of any previous absurdity that I hesitated in what
I thought was a necessary warning. He, however, quickly precipitated it.
Glancing after the retreating figures of the two women, he said: "Thees
mees from Boston is return to her house. You do not accompany her? I
shall. Behold me--I am there." But I linked my arm firmly in his. Then
I pointed out, first, that she was already accompanied by a servant;
secondly, that if I, who knew her, had hesitated to offer myself as an
escort, it was hardly proper for him, a perfect stranger, to take that
liberty; that Miss Mannersley was very punctilious of etiquette, which
he, as a Castilian gentleman, ought to appreciate.

"But will she not regard lofe--the admiration excessif?" he said,
twirling his thin little mustache meditatively.

"No; she will not," I returned sharply; "and you ought to understand
that she is on a different level from your Manuelas and Carmens."

"Pardon, my friend," he said gravely; "thees women are ever the same.
There is a proverb in my language. Listen: 'Whether the sharp blade of
the Toledo pierce the satin or the goatskin, it shall find behind it
ever the same heart to wound.' I am that Toledo blade--possibly it is
you, my friend. Wherefore, let us together pursue this girl of Boston on
the instant."

But I kept my grasp on Enriquez' arm, and succeeded in restraining his
mercurial impulses for the moment. He halted, and puffed vigorously at
his cigarette; but the next instant he started forward again. "Let us,
however, follow with discretion in the rear; we shall pass her house; we
shall gaze at it; it shall touch her heart."

Ridiculous as was this following of the young girl we had only just
parted from, I nevertheless knew that Enriquez was quite capable of
attempting it alone, and I thought it better to humor him by consenting
to walk with him in that direction; but I felt it necessary to say:

"I ought to warn you that Miss Mannersley already looks upon your
performances at the sala as something outre and peculiar, and if I were
you I shouldn't do anything to deepen tha