ugh this year it is better than usual. The lions roared like
thunder, and the monkeys accepted all the lozenges. They were punished
for their greediness. But will you come back to spend a whole month at
Gerona? And if you allowed me, I would take you to some of the
excursions in the neighbourhood. There are any number within twenty
miles; ruined churches and deserted monasteries. I don't care much about
them myself, but I know many who do. It seems to me that a good show and
a handful of chestnuts are worth all the wretched old ruins in the
world."

In spite of this vandalism, we assured Ernesto that when we spent a
month in Gerona he should have the honour of escorting us, provided it
was not school-time. He wished to bind us to a given date, thereby
showing a decided talent for business, but we refused to be committed to
the inevitable. We left mother and son together, a picture of domestic
happiness. As we disappeared under the archway of the hotel, Ernesto
held up his catapult in triumph, successfully parrying his mother's
attempt to obtain possession of the forbidden weapon. She evidently
looked upon it as only one degree below an infernal machine.

Once more up the broad marble staircase. But it was not the ghostly
hour, and sighs and rustlings and shadows were in the land of the
unseen. Madame in her bureau looked the picture of massive contentment.
At this moment she was posting a ledger, and the balance was evidently
on the right side.

[Illustration: MARKET PLACE: GERONA.]

"As it need be, for they worked hard enough for their living," she
assured us. "She couldn't tell how it was; no one would think from her
size that she never relaxed in her exertions. Do what she would, she
could not get thin. As for her husband, she made him eat all the richest
bits at dinner; never allowed him to fast; supplied him with eggs and
butter and beer _ad libitum_. No; he was obstinate. He _would_ keep
thin. The consequence was they were a ridiculous couple. She was the
Duomo at Florence, he was the Campanile. However, they made the best of
it. Life was too short to grieve over inevitable troubles. Clearly she
was an inevitable. When she was a girl, there were five ladies who might
be seen walking out morning, noon, and night, and always together. Go
which way you would you were sure to meet them. They knew every one, and
five perpetual bows were everlastingly see-sawing like a wound-up
machine going through its performance.