w all Gibraltar. After a few words this man guessed to whom
Aguirre was referring.

"That's Luna... Lunita Benamor, old Aboab's granddaughter. What a girl,
eh? The belle of Gibraltar! And rich! Her dowry is at least one hundred
thousand _duros_."

A Jewess!... She was a Jewess! From that time Aguirre began to meet Luna
frequently in the narrow limits of a city where people could hardly move
without encountering one another. He saw her on the roof of her house;
he came across her on Royal Street as she entered her grandfather's
place; he followed her, sometimes in the vicinity of the Puerta del Mar
and at others from the extreme end of the town, near the Alameda. She
was usually unaccompanied, like all the young ladies of Gibraltar, who
are brought up in conformity with English customs. Besides, the town was
in a manner a common dwelling in which all knew one another and where
woman ran no risk.

Whenever Aguirre met her they would exchange casual glances, but with
the expression of persons who have seen each other very often. The
consul still experienced the astonishment of a Spaniard influenced by
centuries of prejudice. A Jewess! He would never have believed that the
race could produce such a woman. Her outward appearance, correct and
elegant as that of an Englishwoman, gave no other indication of her
foreign origin than a marked predilection for silk clothes of bright
hues, especially strawberry color, and a fondness for sparkling jewelry.
With the gorgeousness of an American who pays no attention to hours, she
would go out early in the morning with a thick necklace of pearls
hanging upon her bosom and two flashing pendants in her ears. A picture
hat with costly plumes, imported from London, concealed the ebony beauty
of her hair.

Aguirre had acquaintances in Gibraltar, idlers, whom he had met in the
cafes, young, obsequious, courteous Israelites who received this
Castilian official with ancestral deference, questioning him about
affairs of Spain as if that were a remote country.

Whenever passed by them during her constant walks along Royal
Street,--taken with no other purpose than to kill time--they spoke of
her with respect. "More than a hundred thousand _duros_." Everybody knew
the amount of the dowry. And they acquainted the consul with the
existence of a certain Israelite who was the girl's affianced husband.
He was now in America to complete his fortune. He was rich, but a Jew
must labor to add to the l