t long; but your
hands were wonderful, very small, admirably modelled, with little
tapering fingers, and the most adorable filbert nails. Don't you
remember how I used to look at them, and turn them over and discuss them
point by point? And if ever I kissed their soft, warm palms, (I think it
possible, though I have no vivid recollections,) remember that I was
twenty-three; and it was certainly an appropriate gesture in the little
comedy which to our mutual entertainment we played so gravely.

Now, as I write, my heart goes pit-a-pat, thinking of you, Rosarito; and
I'm sure that if we had over again that charming time, I should fall
head over ears in love. Oh, you know we were both fibbing when we vowed
we adored one another; I am a romancer by profession, and you by nature.
We parted joyously, and you had the grace not to force a tear, and
neither of our hearts was broken. Where are you now, I wonder; and do
you ever think of me?

* * *

The whole chapter of Andalusian beauty is unfolded in the tobacco
factory at Seville. Six thousand women work there, at little tables
placed by the columns which uphold the roof; they are of all ages, of
all types; plain, pretty, commonplace, beautiful; and ten, perhaps, are
lovely. The gipsies are disappointing, not so comely as the pure
Spaniards; and they attract only by the sphinx-like mystery of their
copper-coloured skin, by their hard, unfathomable eyes.

The Sevillans are perhaps inclined to stoutness, but that is a charm in
their lover's sight, and often have a little down on the upper lip, than
which, when it amounts to no more than a shadow, nothing can be more
enchanting. They look with malicious eyes as you saunter through room
after room in the factory; it is quite an experience to run the gauntlet
of their numerous tongues, making uncomplimentary remarks about your
person, sometimes to your embarrassment offering you the carnation from
their hair, or other things. Their clothes are suspended to the pillars,
and their costume in summer is more adapted for coolness than for the
inspection of decorous foreigners. They may bring with them babies, and
many a girl will have a cradle by her side, which she rocks with one
foot as her fingers work nimbly at the cigarettes.

They are very oriental, these women with voluptuous forms; they have no
education, and with all their charm are unutterably stupid; they do not
read, and find even newspapers tiresome! Those whose circums