EEMINIA. right.
Don Fernando,
181
the proj)rietor, has ten children, and
the three eldest girls, grand, qneen-lil^e beauties, are already
The
married. of
there, as
all, sits
very
much
come
on the
you
But what
is
magnificent
the use of looking ?
is
;
not so
She
left.
is
also teases
—she
is
engaged
;
Hernandez in that small house
along, I see Felipa
a dark brunette, but she is very accom-
phshed, sings charmingly, and
She
She
see.
shorter than you are youi'self, and modelled like
a statue. so
daughter, Olpnpia, the handsomest
foui'th
is
the best dancer in Valencia.
most agreeably."
So sajong, I presented Haj^ward
to the senorita at the
window, and being forthwith invited to enter the house, we
We
spent half an hour in chatting and smoking cigarettes.
then mounted, and after
return,
though
it
tallying at
one or two other windows,
by a gallop outside the town.
finished om- ride
pliments passed, and we rode
home
sat talking after our meal, I
;
quite vexed, I told
Her
com-
was amused with Hayall
he could about
and punished him by giving the most laconic
answers possible
**
A few
to dinner.
ward's indirect attempts to find out
Erminia,
our
was nearly dark, I introduced Haj^ard to
Erminia, who seemed more than usually shy.
As we
On
but seeing that at last he was getting
him
all
I
knew about
father," I said, " is a
man
her.
of good family,
who has
always sympathised with the oligarchical party; consequently his estates,
which are
bring in very
little.
large,
have been laid waste, and now
Erminia's mother
is
dead.
She was
the eldest of three daughters, and inherited her father's estate,
which has now passed to Erminia, who has, by-the-
bye, a step-mother in her mother's thii-d sister.
By
this
second marriage there are several children, while Erminia