here again the rule has
its exceptions and will probably have more. Not only is the English
queen-consort stimulating the Andalusian girls to play tennis by her
example when she comes to Seville, but it has somehow become the fashion
for ladies of all ages to leave their carriages in the Delicias and walk
up and down; we saw at least a dozen doing it.

Whatever flirting and intriguing goes on, the public sees nothing of
it. In the street there is no gleam of sheep's-eying or any manner of
indecorum. The women look sensible and good, and I should say the same
of the men; the stranger's experience must have been more unfortunate
than mine if he has had any unkindness from them. One heard that Spanish
women do not smoke, unless they are _cigarreras_ and work in the large
tobacco factory, where the "Carmen" tradition has given place to the
mother-of-a-family type, with her baby on the floor beside her. Even
these may prefer not to set the baby a bad example and have her grow
up and smoke like those English and American women. The strength of
the Church is, of course, in the women's faith, and its strength is
unquestionable, if not quite unquestioned. In Seville, as I have said,
there are two Spanish Protestant churches, and their worship, is not
molested. Society does not receive their members; but we heard that with
most Spanish people Protestantism is a puzzle rather than offense. They
know we are not Jews, but Christians; yet we are not Catholics; and
what, then, are we? With the Protestants, as with the Catholics, there
is always religious marriage. There is civil marriage for all, but
without the religious rite the pair are not well seen by either sect.

It is said that the editor of the ablest paper in Madrid, which
publishes a local edition at Seville, is a Protestant. The queen mother
is extremely clerical, though one of the wisest and best women who ever
ruled; the king and queen consort are as liberal as possible, and the
king is notoriously a democrat, with a dash of Haroun al Rashid, he
likes to take his governmental subordinates unawares, and a story is
told of his dropping in at the post-office on a late visit to Seville,
and asking for the chief. He was out, and so were all the subordinate
officials down to the lowest, whom the king found at his work. The
others have since been diligent at theirs. The story is characteristic
of the king, if not of the post-office people.

Political freedom is almost grotesq