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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3615-0.txt b/3615-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..882e7f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3615-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1378 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, John Bull on the Guadalquivir, by Anthony +Trollope + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: John Bull on the Guadalquivir + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2015 [eBook #3615] +[This file was first posted on June 15, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR*** + + +Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales from all Countries” +edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. + + +I AM an Englishman, living, as all Englishman should do, in England, and +my wife would not, I think, be well pleased were any one to insinuate +that she were other than an Englishwoman; but in the circumstances of my +marriage I became connected with the south of Spain, and the narrative +which I am to tell requires that I should refer to some of those details. + +The Pomfrets and Daguilars have long been in trade together in this +country, and one of the partners has usually resided at Seville for the +sake of the works which the firm there possesses. My father, James +Pomfret, lived there for ten years before his marriage; and since that +and up to the present period, old Mr. Daguilar has always been on the +spot. He was, I believe, born in Spain, but he came very early to +England; he married an English wife, and his sons had been educated +exclusively in England. His only daughter, Maria Daguilar, did not pass +so large a proportion of her early life in this country, but she came to +us for a visit at the age of seventeen, and when she returned I made up +my mind that I most assuredly would go after her. So I did, and she is +now sitting on the other side of the fireplace with a legion of small +linen habiliments in a huge basket by her side. + +I felt, at the first, that there was something lacking to make my cup of +love perfectly delightful. It was very sweet, but there was wanting that +flower of romance which is generally added to the heavenly draught by a +slight admixture of opposition. I feared that the path of my true love +would run too smooth. When Maria came to our house, my mother and elder +sister seemed to be quite willing that I should be continually alone with +her; and she had not been there ten days before my father, by chance, +remarked that there was nothing old Mr. Daguilar valued so highly as a +thorough feeling of intimate alliance between the two families which had +been so long connected in trade. I was never told that Maria was to be +my wife, but I felt that the same thing was done without words; and when, +after six weeks of somewhat elaborate attendance upon her, I asked her to +be Mrs. John Pomfret, I had no more fear of a refusal, or even of +hesitation on her part, than I now have when I suggest to my partner some +commercial transaction of undoubted advantage. + +But Maria, even at that age, had about her a quiet sustained decision of +character quite unlike anything I had seen in English girls. I used to +hear, and do still hear, how much more flippant is the education of girls +in France and Spain than in England; and I know that this is shown to be +the result of many causes—the Roman Catholic religion being, perhaps, +chief offender; but, nevertheless, I rarely see in one of our own young +women the same power of a self-sustained demeanour as I meet on the +Continent. It goes no deeper than the demeanour, people say. I can only +answer that I have not found that shallowness in my own wife. + +Miss Daguilar replied to me that she was not prepared with an answer; she +had only known me six weeks, and wanted more time to think about it; +besides, there was one in her own country with whom she would wish to +consult. I knew she had no mother; and as for consulting old Mr. +Daguilar on such a subject, that idea, I knew, could not have troubled +her. Besides, as I afterwards learned, Mr. Daguilar had already proposed +the marriage to his partner exactly as he would have proposed a division +of assets. My mother declared that Maria was a foolish chit—in which +by-the-bye she showed her entire ignorance of Miss Daguilar’s character; +my eldest sister begged that no constraint might he put on the young +lady’s inclinations—which provoked me to assert that the young lady’s +inclinations were by no means opposed to my own; and my father, in the +coolest manner suggested that the matter might stand over for twelve +months, and that I might then go to Seville, and see about it! Stand +over for twelve months! Would not Maria, long before that time, have +been snapped up and carried off by one of those inordinately rich Spanish +grandees who are still to be met with occasionally in Andalucia? + +My father’s dictum, however, had gone forth; and Maria, in the calmest +voice, protested that she thought it very wise. I should be less of a +boy by that time, she said, smiling on me, but driving wedges between +every fibre of my body as she spoke. “Be it so,” I said, proudly. “At +any rate, I am not so much of a boy that I shall forget you.” “And, +John, you still have the trade to learn,” she added, with her deliciously +foreign intonation—speaking very slowly, but with perfect pronunciation. +The trade to learn! However, I said not a word, but stalked out of the +room, meaning to see her no more before she went. But I could not resist +attending on her in the hall as she started; and, when she took leave of +us, she put her face up to be kissed by me, as she did by my father, and +seemed to receive as much emotion from one embrace as from the other. +“He’ll go out by the packet of the 1st April,” said my father, speaking +of me as though I were a bale of goods. “Ah! that will be so nice,” said +Maria, settling her dress in the carriage; “the oranges will be ripe for +him then!” + +On the 17th April I did sail, and felt still very like a bale of goods. +I had received one letter from her, in which she merely stated that her +papa would have a room ready for me on my arrival; and, in answer to +that, I had sent an epistle somewhat longer, and, as I then thought, a +little more to the purpose. Her turn of mind was more practical than +mine, and I must confess my belief that she did not appreciate my poetry. + +I landed at Cadiz, and was there joined by an old family friend, one of +the very best fellows that ever lived. He was to accompany me up as far +as Seville; and, as he had lived for a year or two at Xeres, was supposed +to be more Spanish almost than a Spaniard. His name was Johnson, and he +was in the wine trade; and whether for travelling or whether for staying +at home—whether for paying you a visit in your own house, or whether for +entertaining you in his—there never was (and I am prepared to maintain +there never will be) a stancher friend, choicer companion, or a safer +guide than Thomas Johnson. Words cannot produce a eulogium sufficient +for his merits. But, as I have since learned, he was not quite so +Spanish as I had imagined. Three years among the bodegas of Xeres had +taught him, no doubt, to appreciate the exact twang of a good, dry +sherry; but not, as I now conceive, the exactest flavour of the true +Spanish character. I was very lucky, however, in meeting such a friend, +and now reckon him as one of the stanchest allies of the house of +Pomfret, Daguilar, and Pomfret. + +He met me at Cadiz, took me about the town, which appeared to me to be of +no very great interest;—though the young ladies were all very well. But, +in this respect, I was then a Stoic, till such time as I might be able to +throw myself at the feet of her whom I was ready to proclaim the most +lovely of all the Dulcineas of Andalucia. He carried me up by boat and +railway to Xeres; gave me a most terrific headache, by dragging me out +into the glare of the sun, after I had tasted some half a dozen different +wines, and went through all the ordinary hospitalities. On the next day +we returned to Puerto, and from thence getting across to St. Lucar and +Bonanza, found ourselves on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and took our +places in the boat for Seville. I need say but little to my readers +respecting that far-famed river. Thirty years ago we in England +generally believed that on its banks was to be found a pure elysium of +pastoral beauty; that picturesque shepherds and lovely maidens here fed +their flocks in fields of asphodel; that the limpid stream ran cool and +crystal over bright stones and beneath perennial shade; and that every +thing on the Guadalquivir was as lovely and as poetical as its name. +Now, it is pretty widely known that no uglier river oozes down to its +bourn in the sea through unwholesome banks of low mud. It is brown and +dirty; ungifted by any scenic advantage; margined for miles upon miles by +huge, flat, expansive fields, in which cattle are reared,—the bulls +wanted for the bullfights among other; and birds of prey sit constant on +the shore, watching for the carcases of such as die. Such are the charms +of the golden Guadalquivir. + +At first we were very dull on board that steamer. I never found myself +in a position in which there was less to do. There was a nasty smell +about the little boat which made me almost ill; every turn in the river +was so exactly like the last, that we might have been standing still; +there was no amusement except eating, and that, when once done, was not +of a kind to make an early repetition desirable. Even Johnson was +becoming dull, and I began to doubt whether I was so desirous as I once +had been to travel the length and breadth of all Spain. But about noon a +little incident occurred which did for a time remove some of our tedium. +The boat had stopped to take in passengers on the river; and, among +others, a man had come on board dressed in a fashion that, to my eyes, +was equally strange and picturesque. Indeed, his appearance was so +singular, that I could not but regard him with care, though I felt at +first averse to stare at a fellow-passenger on account of his clothes. +He was a man of about fifty, but as active apparently as though not more +than twenty five; he was of low stature, but of admirable make; his hair +was just becoming grizzled, but was short and crisp and well cared for; +his face was prepossessing, having a look of good humour added to +courtesy, and there was a pleasant, soft smile round his mouth which +ingratiated one at the first sight. But it was his dress rather than his +person which attracted attention. He wore the ordinary Andalucian cap—of +which such hideous parodies are now making themselves common in +England—but was not contented with the usual ornament of the double tuft. +The cap was small, and jaunty; trimmed with silk velvet—as is common here +with men careful to adorn their persons; but this man’s cap was finished +off with a jewelled button and golden filigree work. He was dressed in a +short jacket with a stand up collar; and that also was covered with +golden buttons and with golden button-holes. It was all gilt down the +front, and all lace down the back. The rows of buttons were double; and +those of the more backward row hung down in heavy pendules. His +waistcoat was of coloured silk—very pretty to look at; and ornamented +with a small sash, through which gold threads were worked. All the +buttons of his breeches also were of gold; and there were gold tags to +all the button-holes. His stockings were of the finest silk, and clocked +with gold from the knee to the ankle. + +Dress any Englishman in such a garb and he will at once give you the idea +of a hog in armour. In the first place he will lack the proper spirit to +carry it off, and in the next place the motion of his limbs will disgrace +the ornaments they bear. “And so best,” most Englishmen will say. Very +likely; and, therefore, let no Englishman try it. But my Spaniard did +not look at like a hog in armour. He walked slowly down the plank into +the boat, whistling lowly but very clearly a few bars from a opera tune. +It was plain to see that he was master of himself, of his ornaments, and +of his limbs. He had no appearance of thinking that men were looking at +him, or of feeling that he was beauteous in his attire;—nothing could be +more natural than his foot-fall, or the quiet glance of his cheery gray +eye. He walked up to the captain, who held the helm, and lightly raised +his hand to his cap. The captain, taking one hand from the wheel, did +the same, and then the stranger, turning his back to the stern of the +vessel, and fronting down the river with his face, continued to whistle +slowly, clearly, and in excellent time. Grand as were his clothes they +were no burden on his mind. + +“What is he?” said I, going up to my friend Johnson with a whisper. + +“Well, I’ve been looking at him,” said Johnson—which was true enough; +“he’s a — an uncommonly good-looking fellow, isn’t he?” + +“Particularly so,” said I; “and got up quite irrespective of expense. Is +he a—a—a gentleman, now, do you think?” + +“Well, those things are so different in Spain that it’s almost impossible +to make an Englishman understand them. One learns to know all this sort +of people by being with them in the country, but one can’t explain.” + +“No; exactly. Are they real gold?” + +“Yes, yes; I dare say they are. They sometimes have them silver gilt.” + +“It is quite a common thing, then, isn’t it?” asked I. + +“Well, not exactly; that—Ah! yes; I see! of course. He is a torero.” + +“A what?” + +“A mayo. I will explain it all to you. You will see them about in all +places, and you will get used to them.” + +“But I haven’t seen one other as yet.” + +“No, and they are not all so gay as this, nor so new in their finery, you +know.” + +“And what is a torero?” + +“Well, a torero is a man engaged in bull-fighting.” + +“Oh! he is a matador, is he?” said I, looking at him with more than all +my eyes. + +“No, not exactly that;—not of necessity. He is probably a mayo. A +fellow that dresses himself smart for fairs, and will be seen hanging +about with the bull-fighters. What would be a sporting fellow in +England—only he won’t drink and curse like a low man on the turf there. +Come, shall we go and speak to him?” + +“I can’t talk to him,” said I, diffident of my Spanish. I had received +lessons in England from Maria Daguilar; but six weeks is little enough +for making love, let alone the learning of a foreign language. + +“Oh! I’ll do the talking. You’ll find the language easy enough before +long. It soon becomes the same as English to you, when you live among +them.” And then Johnson, walking up to the stranger, accosted him with +that good-natured familiarity with which a thoroughly nice fellow always +opens a conversation with his inferior. Of course I could not understand +the words which were exchanged; but it was clear enough that the “mayo” +took the address in good part, and was inclined to be communicative and +social. + +“They are all of pure gold,” said Johnson, turning to me after a minute, +making as he spoke a motion with his head to show the importance of the +information. + +“Are they indeed?” said I. “Where on earth did a fellow like that get +them?” Whereupon Johnson again returned to his conversation with the +man. After another minute he raised his hand, and began to finger the +button on the shoulder; and to aid him in doing so, the man of the +bull-ring turned a little on one side. + +“They are wonderfully well made,” said Johnson, talking to me, and still +fingering the button. “They are manufactured, he says, at Osuna, and he +tells me that they make them better there than anywhere else.” + +“I wonder what the whole set would cost?” said I. “An enormous deal of +money for a fellow like him, I should think!” + +“Over twelve ounces,” said Johnson, having asked the question; “and that +will be more than forty pounds.” + +“What an uncommon ass he must be!” said I. + +As Johnson by this time was very closely scrutinising the whole set of +ornaments I thought I might do so also, and going up close to our friend, +I too began to handle the buttons and tags on the other side. Nothing +could have been more good-humoured than he was—so much so that I was +emboldened to hold up his arm that I might see the cut of his coat, to +take off his cap and examine the make, to stuff my finger in beneath his +sash, and at last to kneel down while I persuaded him to hold up his legs +that I might look to the clocking. The fellow was thorough good-natured, +and why should I not indulge my curiosity? + +“You’ll upset him if you don’t take care,” said Johnson; for I had got +fast hold of him by one ankle, and was determined to finish the survey +completely. + +“Oh, no, I shan’t,” said I; “a bull-fighting chap can surely stand on one +leg. But what I wonder at is, how on earth he can afford it!” Whereupon +Johnson again began to interrogate him in Spanish. + +“He says he has got no children,” said Johnson, having received a reply, +“and that as he has nobody but himself to look after, he is able to allow +himself such little luxuries.” + +“Tell him that I say he would be better with a wife and couple of +babies,” said I—and Johnson interpreted. + +“He says that he’ll think of it some of these days, when he finds that +the supply of fools in the world is becoming short,” said Johnson. + +We had nearly done with him now; but after regaining my feet, I addressed +myself once more to the heavy pendules, which hung down almost under his +arm. I lifted one of these, meaning to feel its weight between my +fingers; but unfortunately I gave a lurch, probably through the motion of +the boat, and still holding by the button, tore it almost off from our +friend’s coat. + +“Oh, I am so sorry,” I said, in broad English. + +“It do not matter at all,” he said, bowing, and speaking with equal +plainness. And then, taking a knife from his pocket, he cut the pendule +off, leaving a bit of torn cloth on the side of his jacket. + +“Upon my word, I am quite unhappy,” said I; “but I always am so awkward.” +Whereupon he bowed low. + +“Couldn’t I make it right?” said I, bringing out my purse. + +He lifted his hand, and I saw that it was small and white; he lifted it +and gently put it upon my purse, smiling sweetly as he did so. “Thank +you, no, señor; thank you, no.” And then, bowing to us both, he walked +away down into the cabin. + +“Upon my word he is a deuced well-mannered fellow,” said I. + +“You shouldn’t have offered him money,” said Johnson; “a Spaniard does +not like it.” + +“Why, I thought you could do nothing without money in this country. +Doesn’t every one take bribes?” + +“Ah! yes; that is a different thing; but not the price of a button. By +Jove! he understood English, too. Did you see that?” + +“Yes; and I called him an ass! I hope he doesn’t mind it.” + +“Oh! no; he won’t think anything about it,” said Johnson. “That sort of +fellows don’t. I dare say we shall see him in the bull-ring next Sunday, +and then we’ll make all right with a glass of lemonade.” + +And so our adventure ended with the man of the gold ornaments. I was +sorry that I had spoken English before him so heedlessly, and resolved +that I would never be guilty of such gaucherie again. But, then, who +would think that a Spanish bull-fighter would talk a foreign language? I +was sorry, also, that I had torn his coat; it had looked so awkward; and +sorry again that I had offered the man money. Altogether I was a little +ashamed of myself; but I had too much to look forward to at Seville to +allow any heaviness to remain long at my heart; and before I had arrived +at the marvellous city I had forgotten both him and his buttons. + +Nothing could be nicer than the way in which I was welcomed at Mr. +Daguilar’s house, or more kind—I may almost say affectionate—than Maria’s +manner to me. But it was too affectionate; and I am not sure that I +should not have liked my reception better had she been more diffident in +her tone, and less inclined to greet me with open warmth. As it was, she +again gave me her cheek to kiss, in her father’s presence, and called me +dear John, and asked me specially after some rabbits which I had kept at +home merely for a younger sister; and then it seemed as though she were +in no way embarrassed by the peculiar circumstances of our position. +Twelve months since I had asked her to be my wife, and now she was to +give me an answer; and yet she was as assured in her gait, and as +serenely joyous in her tone, as though I were a brother just returned +from college. It could not be that she meant to refuse me, or she would +not smile on me and be so loving; but I could almost have found it in my +heart to wish that she would. “It is quite possible,” said I to myself, +“that I may not be found so ready for this family bargain. A love that +is to be had like a bale of goods is not exactly the love to suit my +taste.” But then, when I met her again in the morning I could no more +have quarrelled with her than I could have flown. + +I was inexpressibly charmed with the whole city, and especially with the +house in which Mr. Daguilar lived. It opened from the corner of a +narrow, unfrequented street—a corner like an elbow—and, as seen from the +exterior, there was nothing prepossessing to recommend it; but the outer +door led by a short hall or passage to an inner door or grille, made of +open ornamental iron-work, and through that we entered a court, or patio, +as they I called it. Nothing could be more lovely or deliciously cool +than was this small court. The building on each side was covered by +trellis-work; and beautiful creepers, vines, and parasite flowers, now in +the full magnificence of the early summer, grew up and clustered round +the windows. Every inch of wall was covered, so that none of the glaring +whitewash wounded the eye. In the four corners of the patio were four +large orange-trees, covered with fruit. I would not say a word in +special praise of these, remembering that childish promise she had made +on my behalf. In the middle of the court there was a fountain, and round +about on the marble floor there were chairs, and here and there a small +table, as though the space were really a portion of the house. It was +here that we used to take our cup of coffee and smoke our cigarettes, I +and old Mr. Daguilar, while Maria sat by, not only approving, but +occasionally rolling for me the thin paper round the fragrant weed with +her taper fingers. Beyond the patio was an open passage or gallery, +filled also with flowers in pots; and then, beyond this, one entered the +drawing-room of the house. It was by no means a princely palace or +mansion, fit for the owner of untold wealth. The rooms were not over +large nor very numerous; but the most had been made of a small space, and +everything had been done to relieve the heat of an almost tropical sun. + +“It is pretty, is it not?” she said, as she took me through it. + +“Very pretty,” I said. “I wish we could live in such houses.” + +“Oh, they would not do at all for dear old fat, cold, cozy England. You +are quite different, you know, in everything from us in the south; more +phlegmatic, but then so much steadier. The men and the houses are all +the same.” + +I can hardly tell why, but even this wounded me. It seemed to me as +though she were inclined to put into one and the same category things +English, dull, useful, and solid; and that she was disposed to show a +sufficient appreciation for such necessaries of life, though she herself +had another and inner sense—a sense keenly alive to the poetry of her own +southern chime; and that I, as being English, was to have no +participation in this latter charm. An English husband might do very +well, the interests of the firm might make such an arrangement desirable, +such a mariage de convenance—so I argued to myself—might be quite +compatible with—with heaven only knows what delights of superterrestial +romance, from which I, as being an English thick-headed lump of useful +coarse mortality, was to be altogether debarred. She had spoken to me of +oranges, and having finished the survey of the house, she offered me some +sweet little cakes. It could not be that of such things were the +thoughts which lay undivulged beneath the clear waters of those deep +black eyes—undivulged to me, though no one else could have so good a +right to read those thoughts! It could not be that that noble brow gave +index of a mind intent on the trade of which she spoke so often! Words +of other sort than any that had been vouchsafed to me must fall at times +from the rich curves of that perfect month. + +So felt I then, pining for something to make me unhappy. Ah, me! I know +all about it now, and am content. But I wish that some learned pundit +would give us a good definition of romance, would describe in words that +feeling with which our hearts are so pestered when we are young, which +makes us sigh for we know not what, and forbids us to be contented with +what God sends us. We invest female beauty with impossible attributes, +and are angry because our women have not the spiritualised souls of +angels, anxious as we are that they should also be human in the flesh. A +man looks at her he would love as at a distant landscape in a mountainous +land. The peaks are glorious with more than the beauty of earth and rock +and vegetation. He dreams of some mysterious grandeur of design which +tempts him on under the hot sun, and over the sharp rock, till he has +reached the mountain goal which he had set before him. But when there, +he finds that the beauty is well-nigh gone, and as for that delicious +mystery on which his soul had fed, it has vanished for ever. + +I know all about it now, and am, as I said, content. Beneath those deep +black eyes there lay a well of love, good, honest, homely love, love of +father and husband and children that were to come—of that love which +loves to see the loved ones prospering in honesty. That noble brow—for +it is noble; I am unchanged in that opinion, and will go unchanged to my +grave—covers thoughts as to the welfare of many, and an intellect fitted +to the management of a household, of servants, namely, and children, and +perchance a husband. That mouth can speak words of wisdom, of very +useful wisdom—though of poetry it has latterly uttered little that was +original. Poetry and romance! They are splendid mountain views seen in +the distance. So let men be content to see them, and not attempt to +tread upon the fallacious heather of the mystic hills. + +In the first week of my sojourn in Seville I spoke no word of overt love +to Maria, thinking, as I confess, to induce her thereby to alter her mode +of conduct to myself. “She knows that I have come here to make love to +her—to repeat my offer; and she will at any rate be chagrined if I am +slow to do so.” But it had no effect. At home my mother was rather +particular about her table, and Maria’s greatest efforts seemed to be +used in giving me as nice dinners as we gave her. In those days I did +not care a straw about my dinner, and so I took an opportunity of telling +her. “Dear me,” said she, looking at me almost with grief, “do you not? +What a pity! And do you not like music either.” “Oh, yes, I adore it,” +I replied. I felt sure at the time that had I been born in her own sunny +clime, she would never have talked to me about eating. But that was my +mistake. + +I used to walk out with her about the city, seeing all that is there of +beauty and magnificence. And in what city is there more that is worth +the seeing? At first this was very delightful to me, for I felt that I +was blessed with a privilege that would not be granted to any other man. +But its value soon fell in my eyes, for others would accost her, and walk +on the other side, talking to her in Spanish, as though I hardly existed, +or were a servant there for her protection. And I was not allowed to +take her arm, and thus to appropriate her, as I should have done in +England. “No, John,” she said, with the sweetest, prettiest smile, “we +don’t do that here; only when people are married.” And she made this +allusion to married life out, openly, with no slightest tremor on her +tongue. + +“Oh, I beg pardon,” said I, drawing back my hand, and feeling angry with +myself for not being fully acquainted with all the customs of a foreign +country. + +“You need not beg pardon,” said she; “when we were in England we always +walked so. It is just a custom, you know.” And then I saw her drop her +large dark eyes to the ground, and bow gracefully in answer to some +salute. + +I looked round, and saw that we had been joined by a young cavalier,—a +Spanish nobleman, as I saw at once; a man with jet black hair, and a +straight nose, and a black moustache, and patent leather boots, very slim +and very tall, and—though I would not confess it then—uncommonly +handsome. I myself am inclined to be stout, my hair is light, my nose +broad, I have no hair on my upper lip, and my whiskers are rough and +uneven. “I could punch your head though, my fine fellow,” said I to +myself, when I saw that he placed himself at Maria’s side, “and think +very little of the achievement.” + +The wretch went on with us round the plaza for some quarter of an hour +talking Spanish with the greatest fluency, and she was every whit as +fluent. Of course I could not understand a word that they said. Of all +positions that a man can occupy, I think that that is about the most +uncomfortable; and I cannot say that, even up to this day, I have quite +forgiven her for that quarter of an hour. + +“I shall go in,” said I, unable to bear my feelings, and preparing to +leave her. “The heat is unendurable.” + +“Oh dear, John, why did you not speak before?” she answered. “You cannot +leave me here, you know, as I am in your charge; but I will go with you +almost directly.” And then she finished her conversation with the +Spaniard, speaking with an animation she had never displayed in her +conversations with me. + +It had been agreed between us for two or three days before this, that we +were to rise early on the following morning for the sake of ascending the +tower of the cathedral, and visiting the Giralda, as the iron figure is +called, which turns upon a pivot on the extreme summit. We had often +wandered together up and down the long dark gloomy aisle of the +stupendous building, and had, together, seen its treasury of art; but as +yet we had not performed the task which has to be achieved by all +visitors to Seville; and in order that we might have a clear view over +the surrounding country, and not be tormented by the heat of an advanced +sun, we had settled that we would ascend the Giralda before breakfast. + +And now, as I walked away from the plaza towards Mr. Daguilar’s house, +with Maria by my side, I made up my mind that I would settle my business +during this visit to the cathedral. Yes, and I would so manage the +settlement that there should be no doubt left as to my intentions and my +own ideas. I would not be guilty of shilly-shally conduct; I would tell +her frankly what I felt and what I thought, and would make her understand +that I did not desire her hand if I could not have her heart. I did not +value the kindness of her manner, seeing that that kindness sprung from +indifference rather than passion; and so I would declare to her. And I +would ask her, also, who was this young man with whom she was +intimate—for whom all her volubility and energy of tone seemed to be +employed? She had told me once that it behoved her to consult a friend +in Seville as to the expediency of her marriage with me. Was this the +friend whom she had wished to consult? If so, she need not trouble +herself. Under such circumstances I should decline the connection! And +I resolved that I would find out how this might be. A man who proposes +to take a woman to his bosom as his wife, has a right to ask for +information—ay, and to receive it too. It flashed upon my mind at this +moment that Donna Maria was well enough inclined to come to me as my +wife, but —. I could hardly define the “buts” to myself, for there were +three or four of them. Why did she always speak to me in a tone of +childish affection, as though I were a schoolboy home for the holidays? +I would have all this out with her on the tower on the following morning, +standing under the Giralda. + +On that morning we met together in the patio, soon after five o’clock, +and started for the cathedral. She looked beautiful, with her black +mantilla over her head, and with black gloves on, and her black morning +silk dress—beautiful, composed, and at her ease, as though she were well +satisfied to undertake this early morning walk from feelings of good +nature—sustained, probably, by some under-current of a deeper sentiment. +Well; I would know all about it before I returned to her father’s house. + +There hardly stands, as I think, on the earth, a building more remarkable +than the cathedral of Seville, and hardly one more grand. Its enormous +size; its gloom and darkness; the richness of ornamentation in the +details, contrasted with the severe simplicity of the larger outlines; +the variety of its architecture; the glory of its paintings; and the +wondrous splendour of its metallic decoration, its altar-friezes, +screens, rails, gates, and the like, render it, to my mind, the first in +interest among churches. It has not the coloured glass of Chartres, or +the marble glory of Milan, or such a forest of aisles as Antwerp, or so +perfect a hue in stone as Westminster, nor in mixed beauty of form and +colour does it possess anything equal to the choir of Cologne; but, for +combined magnificence and awe-compelling grandeur, I regard it as +superior to all other ecclesiastical edifices. + +It is its deep gloom with which the stranger is so greatly struck on his +first entrance. In a region so hot as the south of Spain, a cool +interior is a main object with the architect, and this it has been +necessary to effect by the exclusion of light; consequently the church is +dark, mysterious, and almost cold. On the morning in question, as we +entered, it seemed to be filled with gloom, and the distant sound of a +slow footstep here and there beyond the transept inspired one almost with +awe. Maria, when she first met me, had begun to talk with her usual +smile, offering me coffee and a biscuit before I started. “I never eat +biscuit,” I said, with almost a severe tone, as I turned from her. That +dark, horrid man of the plaza—would she have offered him a cake had she +been going to walk with him in the gloom of the morning? After that +little had been spoken between us. She walked by my side with her +accustomed smile; but she had, as I flattered myself, begun to learn that +I was not to be won by a meaningless good nature. “We are lucky in our +morning for the view!” that was all she said, speaking with that +peculiarly clear, but slow pronunciation which she had assumed in +learning our language. + +We entered the cathedral, and, walking the whole length of the aisle, +left it again at the porter’s porch at the farther end. Here we passed +through a low door on to the stone flight of steps, and at once began to +ascend. “There are a party of your countrymen up before us,” said Maria; +“the porter says that they went through the lodge half an hour since.” +“I hope they will return before we are on the top,” said I, bethinking +myself of the task that was before me. And indeed my heart was hardly at +ease within me, for that which I had to say would require all the spirit +of which I was master. + +The ascent to the Giralda is very long and very fatiguing; and we had to +pause on the various landings and in the singular belfry in order that +Miss Daguilar might recruit her strength and breath. As we rested on one +of these occasions, in a gallery which runs round the tower below the +belfry, we heard a great noise of shouting, and a clattering of sticks +among the bells. “It is the party of your countrymen who went up before +us,” said she. “What a pity that Englishmen should always make so much +noise!” And then she spoke in Spanish to the custodian of the bells, who +is usually to be found in a little cabin up there within the tower. “He +says that they went up shouting like demons,” continued Maria; and it +seemed to me that she looked as though I ought to be ashamed of the name +of an Englishman. “They may not be so solemn in their demeanour as +Spaniards,” I answered; “but, for all that, there may be quite as much in +them.” + +We then again began to mount, and before we had ascended much farther we +passed my three countrymen. They were young men, with gray coats and +gray trousers, with slouched hats, and without gloves. They had fair +faces and fair hair, and swung big sticks in their hands, with crooked +handles. They laughed and talked loud, and, when we met them, seemed to +be racing with each other; but nevertheless they were gentlemen. No one +who knows by sight what an English gentleman is, could have doubted that; +but I did acknowledge to myself that they should have remembered that the +edifice they were treading was a church, and that the silence they were +invading was the cherished property of a courteous people. + +“They are all just the same as big boys,” said Maria. The colour +instantly flew into my face, and I felt that it was my duty to speak up +for my own countrymen. The word “boys” especially wounded my ears. It +was as a boy that she treated me; but, on looking at that befringed young +Spanish Don—who was not, apparently, my elder in age—she had recognised a +man. However, I said nothing further till I reached the summit. One +cannot speak with manly dignity while one is out of breath on a +staircase. + +“There, John,” she said, stretching her hands away over the fair plain of +the Guadalquivir, as soon as we stood against the parapet; “is not that +lovely?” + +I would not deign to notice this. “Maria,” I said, “I think that you are +too hard upon my countrymen?” + +“Too hard! no; for I love them. They are so good and industrious; and +come home to their wives, and take care of their children. But why do +they make themselves so—so—what the French call gauche?” + +“Good and industrious, and come home to their wives!” thought I. “I +believe you hardly understand us as yet,” I answered. “Our domestic +virtues are not always so very prominent; but, I believe, we know how to +conduct ourselves as gentlemen: at any rate, as well as Spaniards.” I +was very angry—not at the faults, but at the good qualities imputed to +us. + +“In affairs of business, yes,” said Maria, with a look of firm confidence +in her own opinion—that look of confidence which she has never lost, and +I pray that she may never lose it while I remain with her—“but in the +little intercourses of the world, no! A Spaniard never forgets what is +personally due either to himself or his neighbours. If he is eating an +onion, he eats it as an onion should be eaten.” + +“In such matters as that he is very grand, no doubt,” said I, angrily. + +“And why should you not eat an onion properly, John? Now, I heard a +story yesterday from Don—about two Englishmen, which annoyed me very +much.” I did not exactly catch the name of the Don in question but I +felt through every nerve in my body that it was the man who had been +talking to her on the plaza. + +“And what have they done?” said I. “But it is the same everywhere. We +are always abused; but, nevertheless, no people are so welcome. At any +rate, we pay for the mischief we do.” I was angry with myself the moment +the words were out of my mouth, for, after all, there is no feeling more +mean than that pocket-confidence with which an Englishman sometimes +swaggers. + +“There was no mischief done in this case,” she answered. “It was simply +that two men have made themselves ridiculous for ever. The story is all +about Seville, and, of course, it annoys me that they should be +Englishmen.” + +“And what did they do?” + +“The Marquis D’Almavivas was coming up to Seville in the boat, and they +behaved to him in the most outrageous manner. He is here now and is +going to give a series of fêtes. Of course he will not ask a single +Englishman.” + +“We shall manage to live even though the Marquis D’Almavivas may frown +upon us,” said I, proudly. + +“He is the richest, and also the best of our noblemen,” continued Maria; +“and I never heard of anything so absurd as what they did to him. It +made me blush when Don — told me.” Don Tomàs, I thought she said. + +“If he be the best of your noblemen, how comes it that he is angry +because he has met two vulgar men? It is not to be supposed that every +Englishman is a gentleman.” + +“Angry! Oh, no! he was not angry; he enjoyed the joke too much for that. +He got completely the best of them, though they did not know it; poor +fools! How would your Lord John Russell behave if two Spaniards in an +English railway carriage were to pull him about and tear his clothes?” + +“He would give them in charge to a policeman, of course,” said I, +speaking of such a matter with the contempt it deserved. + +“If that were done here your ambassador would be demanding national +explanations. But Almavivas did much better;—he laughed at them without +letting them know it.” + +“But do you mean that they took hold of him violently, without any +provocation? They must have been drunk.” + +“Oh, no, they were sober enough. I did not see it, so I do not quite +know exactly how it was, but I understand that they committed themselves +most absurdly, absolutely took hold of his coat and tore it, and—; but +they did such ridiculous things that I cannot tell you.” And yet Don +Tomàs, if that was the man’s name, had been able to tell her, and she had +been able to listen to him. + +“‘What made them take hold of the marquis?” said I. + +“Curiosity, I suppose,” she answered. “He dresses somewhat fancifully, +and they could not understand that any one should wear garments different +from their own.” But even then the blow did not strike home upon me. + +“Is it not pretty to look down upon the quiet town?” she said, coming +close up to me, so that the skirt of her dress pressed me, and her elbow +touched my arm. Now was the moment I should have asked her how her heart +stood towards me; but I was sore and uncomfortable, and my destiny was +before me. She was willing enough to let these English faults pass +without further notice, but I would not allow the subject I drop. + +“I will find out who these men were,” said I, “and learn the truth of it. +When did it occur?” + +“Last Thursday, I think he said.” + +“Why, that was the day we came up in the boat, Johnson and myself. There +was no marquis there then, and we were the only Englishmen on board.” + +“It was on Thursday, certainly, because it was well known in Seville that +he arrived on that day. You must have remarked him because he talks +English perfectly—though by-the-bye, these men would go on chattering +before him about himself as though it were impossible that a Spaniard +should know their language. They are ignorant of Spanish, and they +cannot bring themselves to believe that any one should be better educated +than themselves.” + +Now the blow had fallen, and I straightway appreciated the necessity of +returning immediately to Clapham where my family resided, and giving up +for ever all idea of Spanish connections. I had resolved to assert the +full strength of my manhood on that tower, and now words had been spoken +which left me weak as a child. I felt that I was shivering, and did not +dare to pronounce the truth which must be made known. As to speaking of +love, and signifying my pleasure that Don Tomàs should for the future be +kept at a distance, any such effort was quite beyond me. Had Don Tomàs +been there, he might have walked off with her from before my face without +a struggle on my part. “Now I remember about it,” she continued, “I +think he must have been in the boat on Thursday.” + +“And now that I remember,” I replied, turning away to hide my +embarrassment, “he was there. Your friend down below in the plaza seems +to have made out a grand story. No doubt he is not fond of the English. +There was such a man there, and I did take hold—” + +“Oh, John, was it you?” + +“Yes, Donna Maria, it was I; and if Lord John Russell were to dress +himself in the same way—” But I had no time to complete my description +of what might occur under so extravagantly impossible a combination of +circumstances, for as I was yet speaking, the little door leading out on +to the leads of the tower was opened and my friend, the mayo of the boat, +still bearing gewgaws on his back, stepped up on to the platform. My eye +instantly perceived that the one pendule was still missing from his +jacket. He did not come alone, but three other gentlemen followed him, +who, however, had no peculiarities in their dress. He saw me at once and +bowed and smiled; and then observing Donna Maria, he lifted his cap from +his head, and addressing himself to her in Spanish, began to converse +with her as though she were an old friend. + +“Señor,” said Maria, after the first words of greeting had been spoken +between them; “you must permit me to present to you my father’s most +particular friend, and my own,—Mr. Pomfret; John, this is the Marquis +D’Almavivas.” + +I cannot now describe the grace with which this introduction was +effected, or the beauty of her face as she uttered the word. There was a +boldness about her as though she had said, “I know it all—the whole +story. But, in spite of that you must take him on my representation, and +be gracious to him in spite of what he has done. You must be content to +do that; or in quarrelling with him you must quarrel with me also.” And +it was done at the spur of the moment—without delay. She, who not five +minutes since had been loudly condemning the unknown Englishman for his +rudeness, had already pardoned him, now that he was known to be her +friend; and had determined that he should be pardoned by others also or +that she would share his disgrace. I recognised the nobleness of this at +the moment; but, nevertheless, I was so sore that I would almost have +preferred that she should have disowned me. + +The marquis immediately lifted his cap with his left hand while he gave +me his right. “I have already had the pleasure of meeting this +gentleman,” he said; “we had some conversation in the boat together.” + +“Yes,” said I, pointing to his rent, “and you still bear the marks of our +encounter.” + +“Was it not delightful, Donna Maria,” he continued, turning to her; “your +friend’s friend took me for a torero?” + +“And it served you properly, señor,” said Donna Maria, laughing, “you +have no right to go about with all those rich ornaments upon you.” + +“Oh! quite properly; indeed, I make no complaint; and I must beg your +friend to understand, and his friend also, how grateful I am for their +solicitude as to my pecuniary welfare. They were inclined to be severe +on me for being so extravagant in such trifles. I was obliged to explain +that I had no wife at home kept without her proper allowance of dresses, +in order that I might be gay.” + +“They are foreigners, and you should forgive their error,” said she. + +“And in token that I do so,” said the marquis, “I shall beg your friend +to accept the little ornament which attracted his attention.” And so +saying, he pulled the identical button out of his pocket, and gracefully +proffered it to me. + +“I shall carry it about with me always,” said I, accepting it, “as a +memento of humiliation. When I look at it, I shall ever remember the +folly of an Englishman and the courtesy of a Spaniard;” and as I made the +speech I could not but reflect whether it might, under any circumstances, +be possible that Lord John Russell should be induced to give a button off +his coat to a Spaniard. + +There were other civil speeches made, and before we left the tower the +marquis had asked me to his parties, and exacted from me an unwilling +promise that I would attend them. “The señora,” he said, bowing again to +Maria, “would, he was sure, grace them. She had done so on the previous +year; and as I had accepted his little present I was bound to acknowledge +him as my friend.” All this was very pretty, and of course I said that I +would go, but I had not at that time the slightest intention of doing so. +Maria had behaved admirably; she had covered my confusion, and shown +herself not ashamed to own me, delinquent as I was; but, not the less, +had she expressed her opinion, in language terribly strong, of the +awkwardness of which I had been guilty, and had shown almost an aversion +to my English character. I should leave Seville as quickly as I could, +and should certainly not again put myself in the way of the Marquis +D’Almavivas. Indeed, I dreaded the moment that I should be first alone +with her, and should find myself forced to say something indicative of my +feelings—to hear something also indicative of her feelings. I had come +out this morning resolved to demand my rights and to exercise them—and +now my only wish was to run away. I hated the marquis, and longed to be +alone that I might cast his button from me. To think that a man should +be so ruined by such a trifle! + +We descended that prodigious flight without a word upon the subject, and +almost without a word at all. She had carried herself well in the +presence of Almavivas, and had been too proud to seem ashamed of her +companion; but now, as I could well see, her feelings of disgust and +contempt had returned. When I begged her not to hurry herself, she would +hardly answer me; and when she did speak, her voice was constrained and +unlike herself. And yet how beautiful she was! Well, my dream of +Spanish love must be over. But I was sure of this; that having known +her, and given her my heart, I could never afterwards share it with +another. + +We came out at last on the dark, gloomy aisle of the cathedral, and +walked together without a word up along the side of the choir, till we +came to the transept. There was not a soul near us, and not a sound was +to be heard but the distant, low pattering of a mass, then in course of +celebration at some far-off chapel in the cathedral. When we got to the +transept Maria turned a little, as though she was going to the transept +door, and then stopped herself. She stood still; and when I stood also, +she made two steps towards me, and put her hand on my arm. “Oh, John!” +she said. + +“‘Well,” said I; “after all it does not signify. You can make a joke of +it when my back is turned.” + +“Dearest John!”—she had never spoken to me in that way before—“you must +not be angry with me. It is better that we should explain to each other, +is it not?” + +“Oh, much better. I am very glad you heard of it at once. I do not look +at it quite in the same light that you do; but nevertheless—” + +“What do you mean? But I know you are angry with me. And yet you cannot +think that I intended those words for you. Of course I know now that +there was nothing rude in what passed.” + +“Oh, but there was.” + +“No, I am sure there was not. You could not be rude though you are so +free hearted. I see it all now, and so does the marquis. You will like +him so much when you come to know him. Tell me that you won’t be cross +with me for what I have said. Sometimes I think that I have displeased +you, and yet my whole wish has been to welcome you to Seville, and to +make you comfortable as an old friend. Promise me that you will not be +cross with me.” + +Cross with her! I certainly had no intention of being cross, but I had +begun to think that she would not care what my humour might be. “Maria,” +I said, taking hold of her hand. + +“No, John, do not do that. It is in the church, you know.” + +“Maria, will you answer me a question?” + +“Yes,” she said, very slowly, looking dawn upon the stone slabs beneath +our feet. + +“Do you love me?” + +“Love you!” + +“Yes, do you love me? You were to give me an answer here, in Seville, +and now I ask for it. I have almost taught myself to think that it is +needless to ask; and now this horrid mischance—” + +“What do you mean?” said she, speaking very quickly. + +“Why this miserable blunder about the marquis’s button! After that I +suppose—” + +“The marquis! Oh, John, is that to make a difference between you and +me?—a little joke like that?” + +“But does it not?” + +“Make a change between us!—such a thing as that! Oh, John!” + +“But tell me, Maria, what am I to hope? If you will say that you can +love me, I shall care nothing for the marquis. In that case I can bear +to be laughed at.” + +“Who will dare to laugh at you? Not the marquis, whom I am sure you will +like.” + +“Your friend in this plaza, who told you of all this.” + +“What, poor Tomàs!” + +“I do not know about his being poor. I mean the gentleman who was with +you last night.” + +“Yes, Tomàs. You do not know who he is?” + +“Not in the least.” + +“How droll! He is your own clerk—partly your own, now that you are one +of the firm. And, John, I mean to make you do something for him; he is +such a good fellow; and last year he married a young girl whom I love—oh, +almost like a sister.” + +Do something for him! Of course I would. I promised, then and there, +that I would raise his salary to any conceivable amount that a Spanish +clerk could desire; which promise I have since kept, if not absolutely to +the letter, at any rate, to an extent which has been considered +satisfactory by the gentleman’s wife. + +“But, Maria—dearest Maria—” + +“Remember, John, we are in the church; and poor papa will be waiting +breakfast.” + +I need hardly continue the story further. It will be known to all that +my love-suit throve in spite of my unfortunate raid on the button of the +Marquis D’Almavivas, at whose series of fêtes through that month I was, I +may boast, an honoured guest. I have since that had the pleasure of +entertaining him in my own poor house in England, and one of our boys +bears his Christian name. + +From that day in which I ascended the Giralda to this present day in +which I write, I have never once had occasion to complain of a deficiency +of romance either in Maria Daguilar or in Maria Pomfret. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR*** + + +******* This file should be named 3615-0.txt or 3615-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/1/3615 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: John Bull on the Guadalquivir + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2015 [eBook #3615] +[This file was first posted on June 15, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales from +all Countries” edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR.</h1> +<p>I <span class="smcap">am</span> an Englishman, living, as all +Englishman should do, in England, and my wife would not, I think, +be well pleased were any one to insinuate that she were other +than an Englishwoman; but in the circumstances of my marriage I +became connected with the south of Spain, and the narrative which +I am to tell requires that I should refer to some of those +details.</p> +<p>The Pomfrets and Daguilars have long been in trade together in +this country, and one of the partners has usually resided at +Seville for the sake of the works which the firm there +possesses. My father, James Pomfret, lived there for ten +years before his marriage; and since that and up to the present +period, old Mr. Daguilar has always been on the spot. He +was, I believe, born in Spain, but he came very early to England; +he married an English wife, and his sons had been educated +exclusively in England. His only daughter, Maria Daguilar, +did not pass so large a proportion of her early life in this +country, but she came to us for a visit at the age of seventeen, +and when she returned I made up my mind that I most assuredly +would go after her. So I did, and she is now sitting on the +other side of the fireplace with a legion of small linen +habiliments in a huge basket by her side.</p> +<p>I felt, at the first, that there was something lacking to make +my cup of love perfectly delightful. It was very sweet, but +there was wanting that flower of romance which is generally added +to the heavenly draught by a slight admixture of +opposition. I feared that the path of my true love would +run too smooth. When Maria came to our house, my mother and +elder sister seemed to be quite willing that I should be +continually alone with her; and she had not been there ten days +before my father, by chance, remarked that there was nothing old +Mr. Daguilar valued so highly as a thorough feeling of intimate +alliance between the two families which had been so long +connected in trade. I was never told that Maria was to be +my wife, but I felt that the same thing was done without words; +and when, after six weeks of somewhat elaborate attendance upon +her, I asked her to be Mrs. John Pomfret, I had no more fear of a +refusal, or even of hesitation on her part, than I now have when +I suggest to my partner some commercial transaction of undoubted +advantage.</p> +<p>But Maria, even at that age, had about her a quiet sustained +decision of character quite unlike anything I had seen in English +girls. I used to hear, and do still hear, how much more +flippant is the education of girls in France and Spain than in +England; and I know that this is shown to be the result of many +causes—the Roman Catholic religion being, perhaps, chief +offender; but, nevertheless, I rarely see in one of our own young +women the same power of a self-sustained demeanour as I meet on +the Continent. It goes no deeper than the demeanour, people +say. I can only answer that I have not found that +shallowness in my own wife.</p> +<p>Miss Daguilar replied to me that she was not prepared with an +answer; she had only known me six weeks, and wanted more time to +think about it; besides, there was one in her own country with +whom she would wish to consult. I knew she had no mother; +and as for consulting old Mr. Daguilar on such a subject, that +idea, I knew, could not have troubled her. Besides, as I +afterwards learned, Mr. Daguilar had already proposed the +marriage to his partner exactly as he would have proposed a +division of assets. My mother declared that Maria was a +foolish chit—in which by-the-bye she showed her entire +ignorance of Miss Daguilar’s character; my eldest sister +begged that no constraint might he put on the young lady’s +inclinations—which provoked me to assert that the young +lady’s inclinations were by no means opposed to my own; and +my father, in the coolest manner suggested that the matter might +stand over for twelve months, and that I might then go to +Seville, and see about it! Stand over for twelve +months! Would not Maria, long before that time, have been +snapped up and carried off by one of those inordinately rich +Spanish grandees who are still to be met with occasionally in +Andalucia?</p> +<p>My father’s dictum, however, had gone forth; and Maria, +in the calmest voice, protested that she thought it very +wise. I should be less of a boy by that time, she said, +smiling on me, but driving wedges between every fibre of my body +as she spoke. “Be it so,” I said, +proudly. “At any rate, I am not so much of a boy that +I shall forget you.” “And, John, you still have +the trade to learn,” she added, with her deliciously +foreign intonation—speaking very slowly, but with perfect +pronunciation. The trade to learn! However, I said +not a word, but stalked out of the room, meaning to see her no +more before she went. But I could not resist attending on +her in the hall as she started; and, when she took leave of us, +she put her face up to be kissed by me, as she did by my father, +and seemed to receive as much emotion from one embrace as from +the other. “He’ll go out by the packet of the +1st April,” said my father, speaking of me as though I were +a bale of goods. “Ah! that will be so nice,” +said Maria, settling her dress in the carriage; “the +oranges will be ripe for him then!”</p> +<p>On the 17th April I did sail, and felt still very like a bale +of goods. I had received one letter from her, in which she +merely stated that her papa would have a room ready for me on my +arrival; and, in answer to that, I had sent an epistle somewhat +longer, and, as I then thought, a little more to the +purpose. Her turn of mind was more practical than mine, and +I must confess my belief that she did not appreciate my +poetry.</p> +<p>I landed at Cadiz, and was there joined by an old family +friend, one of the very best fellows that ever lived. He +was to accompany me up as far as Seville; and, as he had lived +for a year or two at Xeres, was supposed to be more Spanish +almost than a Spaniard. His name was Johnson, and he was in +the wine trade; and whether for travelling or whether for staying +at home—whether for paying you a visit in your own house, +or whether for entertaining you in his—there never was (and +I am prepared to maintain there never will be) a stancher friend, +choicer companion, or a safer guide than Thomas Johnson. +Words cannot produce a eulogium sufficient for his merits. +But, as I have since learned, he was not quite so Spanish as I +had imagined. Three years among the bodegas of Xeres had +taught him, no doubt, to appreciate the exact twang of a good, +dry sherry; but not, as I now conceive, the exactest flavour of +the true Spanish character. I was very lucky, however, in +meeting such a friend, and now reckon him as one of the stanchest +allies of the house of Pomfret, Daguilar, and Pomfret.</p> +<p>He met me at Cadiz, took me about the town, which appeared to +me to be of no very great interest;—though the young ladies +were all very well. But, in this respect, I was then a +Stoic, till such time as I might be able to throw myself at the +feet of her whom I was ready to proclaim the most lovely of all +the Dulcineas of Andalucia. He carried me up by boat and +railway to Xeres; gave me a most terrific headache, by dragging +me out into the glare of the sun, after I had tasted some half a +dozen different wines, and went through all the ordinary +hospitalities. On the next day we returned to Puerto, and +from thence getting across to St. Lucar and Bonanza, found +ourselves on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and took our places +in the boat for Seville. I need say but little to my +readers respecting that far-famed river. Thirty years ago +we in England generally believed that on its banks was to be +found a pure elysium of pastoral beauty; that picturesque +shepherds and lovely maidens here fed their flocks in fields of +asphodel; that the limpid stream ran cool and crystal over bright +stones and beneath perennial shade; and that every thing on the +Guadalquivir was as lovely and as poetical as its name. +Now, it is pretty widely known that no uglier river oozes down to +its bourn in the sea through unwholesome banks of low mud. +It is brown and dirty; ungifted by any scenic advantage; margined +for miles upon miles by huge, flat, expansive fields, in which +cattle are reared,—the bulls wanted for the bullfights +among other; and birds of prey sit constant on the shore, +watching for the carcases of such as die. Such are the +charms of the golden Guadalquivir.</p> +<p>At first we were very dull on board that steamer. I +never found myself in a position in which there was less to +do. There was a nasty smell about the little boat which +made me almost ill; every turn in the river was so exactly like +the last, that we might have been standing still; there was no +amusement except eating, and that, when once done, was not of a +kind to make an early repetition desirable. Even Johnson +was becoming dull, and I began to doubt whether I was so desirous +as I once had been to travel the length and breadth of all +Spain. But about noon a little incident occurred which did +for a time remove some of our tedium. The boat had stopped +to take in passengers on the river; and, among others, a man had +come on board dressed in a fashion that, to my eyes, was equally +strange and picturesque. Indeed, his appearance was so +singular, that I could not but regard him with care, though I +felt at first averse to stare at a fellow-passenger on account of +his clothes. He was a man of about fifty, but as active +apparently as though not more than twenty five; he was of low +stature, but of admirable make; his hair was just becoming +grizzled, but was short and crisp and well cared for; his face +was prepossessing, having a look of good humour added to +courtesy, and there was a pleasant, soft smile round his mouth +which ingratiated one at the first sight. But it was his +dress rather than his person which attracted attention. He +wore the ordinary Andalucian cap—of which such hideous +parodies are now making themselves common in England—but +was not contented with the usual ornament of the double +tuft. The cap was small, and jaunty; trimmed with silk +velvet—as is common here with men careful to adorn their +persons; but this man’s cap was finished off with a +jewelled button and golden filigree work. He was dressed in +a short jacket with a stand up collar; and that also was covered +with golden buttons and with golden button-holes. It was +all gilt down the front, and all lace down the back. The +rows of buttons were double; and those of the more backward row +hung down in heavy pendules. His waistcoat was of coloured +silk—very pretty to look at; and ornamented with a small +sash, through which gold threads were worked. All the +buttons of his breeches also were of gold; and there were gold +tags to all the button-holes. His stockings were of the +finest silk, and clocked with gold from the knee to the +ankle.</p> +<p>Dress any Englishman in such a garb and he will at once give +you the idea of a hog in armour. In the first place he will +lack the proper spirit to carry it off, and in the next place the +motion of his limbs will disgrace the ornaments they bear. +“And so best,” most Englishmen will say. Very +likely; and, therefore, let no Englishman try it. But my +Spaniard did not look at like a hog in armour. He walked +slowly down the plank into the boat, whistling lowly but very +clearly a few bars from a opera tune. It was plain to see +that he was master of himself, of his ornaments, and of his +limbs. He had no appearance of thinking that men were +looking at him, or of feeling that he was beauteous in his +attire;—nothing could be more natural than his foot-fall, +or the quiet glance of his cheery gray eye. He walked up to +the captain, who held the helm, and lightly raised his hand to +his cap. The captain, taking one hand from the wheel, did +the same, and then the stranger, turning his back to the stern of +the vessel, and fronting down the river with his face, continued +to whistle slowly, clearly, and in excellent time. Grand as +were his clothes they were no burden on his mind.</p> +<p>“What is he?” said I, going up to my friend +Johnson with a whisper.</p> +<p>“Well, I’ve been looking at him,” said +Johnson—which was true enough; “he’s a — +an uncommonly good-looking fellow, isn’t he?”</p> +<p>“Particularly so,” said I; “and got up quite +irrespective of expense. Is he a—a—a gentleman, +now, do you think?”</p> +<p>“Well, those things are so different in Spain that +it’s almost impossible to make an Englishman understand +them. One learns to know all this sort of people by being +with them in the country, but one can’t explain.”</p> +<p>“No; exactly. Are they real gold?”</p> +<p>“Yes, yes; I dare say they are. They sometimes +have them silver gilt.”</p> +<p>“It is quite a common thing, then, isn’t +it?” asked I.</p> +<p>“Well, not exactly; that—Ah! yes; I see! of +course. He is a torero.”</p> +<p>“A what?”</p> +<p>“A mayo. I will explain it all to you. You +will see them about in all places, and you will get used to +them.”</p> +<p>“But I haven’t seen one other as yet.”</p> +<p>“No, and they are not all so gay as this, nor so new in +their finery, you know.”</p> +<p>“And what is a torero?”</p> +<p>“Well, a torero is a man engaged in +bull-fighting.”</p> +<p>“Oh! he is a matador, is he?” said I, looking at +him with more than all my eyes.</p> +<p>“No, not exactly that;—not of necessity. He +is probably a mayo. A fellow that dresses himself smart for +fairs, and will be seen hanging about with the +bull-fighters. What would be a sporting fellow in +England—only he won’t drink and curse like a low man +on the turf there. Come, shall we go and speak to +him?”</p> +<p>“I can’t talk to him,” said I, diffident of +my Spanish. I had received lessons in England from Maria +Daguilar; but six weeks is little enough for making love, let +alone the learning of a foreign language.</p> +<p>“Oh! I’ll do the talking. You’ll +find the language easy enough before long. It soon becomes +the same as English to you, when you live among +them.” And then Johnson, walking up to the stranger, +accosted him with that good-natured familiarity with which a +thoroughly nice fellow always opens a conversation with his +inferior. Of course I could not understand the words which +were exchanged; but it was clear enough that the +“mayo” took the address in good part, and was +inclined to be communicative and social.</p> +<p>“They are all of pure gold,” said Johnson, turning +to me after a minute, making as he spoke a motion with his head +to show the importance of the information.</p> +<p>“Are they indeed?” said I. “Where on +earth did a fellow like that get them?” Whereupon +Johnson again returned to his conversation with the man. +After another minute he raised his hand, and began to finger the +button on the shoulder; and to aid him in doing so, the man of +the bull-ring turned a little on one side.</p> +<p>“They are wonderfully well made,” said Johnson, +talking to me, and still fingering the button. “They +are manufactured, he says, at Osuna, and he tells me that they +make them better there than anywhere else.”</p> +<p>“I wonder what the whole set would cost?” said +I. “An enormous deal of money for a fellow like him, +I should think!”</p> +<p>“Over twelve ounces,” said Johnson, having asked +the question; “and that will be more than forty +pounds.”</p> +<p>“What an uncommon ass he must be!” said I.</p> +<p>As Johnson by this time was very closely scrutinising the +whole set of ornaments I thought I might do so also, and going up +close to our friend, I too began to handle the buttons and tags +on the other side. Nothing could have been more +good-humoured than he was—so much so that I was emboldened +to hold up his arm that I might see the cut of his coat, to take +off his cap and examine the make, to stuff my finger in beneath +his sash, and at last to kneel down while I persuaded him to hold +up his legs that I might look to the clocking. The fellow +was thorough good-natured, and why should I not indulge my +curiosity?</p> +<p>“You’ll upset him if you don’t take +care,” said Johnson; for I had got fast hold of him by one +ankle, and was determined to finish the survey completely.</p> +<p>“Oh, no, I shan’t,” said I; “a +bull-fighting chap can surely stand on one leg. But what I +wonder at is, how on earth he can afford it!” +Whereupon Johnson again began to interrogate him in Spanish.</p> +<p>“He says he has got no children,” said Johnson, +having received a reply, “and that as he has nobody but +himself to look after, he is able to allow himself such little +luxuries.”</p> +<p>“Tell him that I say he would be better with a wife and +couple of babies,” said I—and Johnson +interpreted.</p> +<p>“He says that he’ll think of it some of these +days, when he finds that the supply of fools in the world is +becoming short,” said Johnson.</p> +<p>We had nearly done with him now; but after regaining my feet, +I addressed myself once more to the heavy pendules, which hung +down almost under his arm. I lifted one of these, meaning +to feel its weight between my fingers; but unfortunately I gave a +lurch, probably through the motion of the boat, and still holding +by the button, tore it almost off from our friend’s +coat.</p> +<p>“Oh, I am so sorry,” I said, in broad English.</p> +<p>“It do not matter at all,” he said, bowing, and +speaking with equal plainness. And then, taking a knife +from his pocket, he cut the pendule off, leaving a bit of torn +cloth on the side of his jacket.</p> +<p>“Upon my word, I am quite unhappy,” said I; +“but I always am so awkward.” Whereupon he +bowed low.</p> +<p>“Couldn’t I make it right?” said I, bringing +out my purse.</p> +<p>He lifted his hand, and I saw that it was small and white; he +lifted it and gently put it upon my purse, smiling sweetly as he +did so. “Thank you, no, señor; thank you, +no.” And then, bowing to us both, he walked away down +into the cabin.</p> +<p>“Upon my word he is a deuced well-mannered +fellow,” said I.</p> +<p>“You shouldn’t have offered him money,” said +Johnson; “a Spaniard does not like it.”</p> +<p>“Why, I thought you could do nothing without money in +this country. Doesn’t every one take +bribes?”</p> +<p>“Ah! yes; that is a different thing; but not the price +of a button. By Jove! he understood English, too. Did +you see that?”</p> +<p>“Yes; and I called him an ass! I hope he +doesn’t mind it.”</p> +<p>“Oh! no; he won’t think anything about it,” +said Johnson. “That sort of fellows +don’t. I dare say we shall see him in the bull-ring +next Sunday, and then we’ll make all right with a glass of +lemonade.”</p> +<p>And so our adventure ended with the man of the gold +ornaments. I was sorry that I had spoken English before him +so heedlessly, and resolved that I would never be guilty of such +gaucherie again. But, then, who would think that a Spanish +bull-fighter would talk a foreign language? I was sorry, +also, that I had torn his coat; it had looked so awkward; and +sorry again that I had offered the man money. Altogether I +was a little ashamed of myself; but I had too much to look +forward to at Seville to allow any heaviness to remain long at my +heart; and before I had arrived at the marvellous city I had +forgotten both him and his buttons.</p> +<p>Nothing could be nicer than the way in which I was welcomed at +Mr. Daguilar’s house, or more kind—I may almost say +affectionate—than Maria’s manner to me. But it +was too affectionate; and I am not sure that I should not have +liked my reception better had she been more diffident in her +tone, and less inclined to greet me with open warmth. As it +was, she again gave me her cheek to kiss, in her father’s +presence, and called me dear John, and asked me specially after +some rabbits which I had kept at home merely for a younger +sister; and then it seemed as though she were in no way +embarrassed by the peculiar circumstances of our position. +Twelve months since I had asked her to be my wife, and now she +was to give me an answer; and yet she was as assured in her gait, +and as serenely joyous in her tone, as though I were a brother +just returned from college. It could not be that she meant +to refuse me, or she would not smile on me and be so loving; but +I could almost have found it in my heart to wish that she +would. “It is quite possible,” said I to +myself, “that I may not be found so ready for this family +bargain. A love that is to be had like a bale of goods is +not exactly the love to suit my taste.” But then, +when I met her again in the morning I could no more have +quarrelled with her than I could have flown.</p> +<p>I was inexpressibly charmed with the whole city, and +especially with the house in which Mr. Daguilar lived. It +opened from the corner of a narrow, unfrequented street—a +corner like an elbow—and, as seen from the exterior, there +was nothing prepossessing to recommend it; but the outer door led +by a short hall or passage to an inner door or grille, made of +open ornamental iron-work, and through that we entered a court, +or patio, as they I called it. Nothing could be more lovely +or deliciously cool than was this small court. The building +on each side was covered by trellis-work; and beautiful creepers, +vines, and parasite flowers, now in the full magnificence of the +early summer, grew up and clustered round the windows. +Every inch of wall was covered, so that none of the glaring +whitewash wounded the eye. In the four corners of the patio +were four large orange-trees, covered with fruit. I would +not say a word in special praise of these, remembering that +childish promise she had made on my behalf. In the middle +of the court there was a fountain, and round about on the marble +floor there were chairs, and here and there a small table, as +though the space were really a portion of the house. It was +here that we used to take our cup of coffee and smoke our +cigarettes, I and old Mr. Daguilar, while Maria sat by, not only +approving, but occasionally rolling for me the thin paper round +the fragrant weed with her taper fingers. Beyond the patio +was an open passage or gallery, filled also with flowers in pots; +and then, beyond this, one entered the drawing-room of the +house. It was by no means a princely palace or mansion, fit +for the owner of untold wealth. The rooms were not over +large nor very numerous; but the most had been made of a small +space, and everything had been done to relieve the heat of an +almost tropical sun.</p> +<p>“It is pretty, is it not?” she said, as she took +me through it.</p> +<p>“Very pretty,” I said. “I wish we +could live in such houses.”</p> +<p>“Oh, they would not do at all for dear old fat, cold, +cozy England. You are quite different, you know, in +everything from us in the south; more phlegmatic, but then so +much steadier. The men and the houses are all the +same.”</p> +<p>I can hardly tell why, but even this wounded me. It +seemed to me as though she were inclined to put into one and the +same category things English, dull, useful, and solid; and that +she was disposed to show a sufficient appreciation for such +necessaries of life, though she herself had another and inner +sense—a sense keenly alive to the poetry of her own +southern chime; and that I, as being English, was to have no +participation in this latter charm. An English husband +might do very well, the interests of the firm might make such an +arrangement desirable, such a mariage de convenance—so I +argued to myself—might be quite compatible with—with +heaven only knows what delights of superterrestial romance, from +which I, as being an English thick-headed lump of useful coarse +mortality, was to be altogether debarred. She had spoken to +me of oranges, and having finished the survey of the house, she +offered me some sweet little cakes. It could not be that of +such things were the thoughts which lay undivulged beneath the +clear waters of those deep black eyes—undivulged to me, +though no one else could have so good a right to read those +thoughts! It could not be that that noble brow gave index +of a mind intent on the trade of which she spoke so often! +Words of other sort than any that had been vouchsafed to me must +fall at times from the rich curves of that perfect month.</p> +<p>So felt I then, pining for something to make me unhappy. +Ah, me! I know all about it now, and am content. But +I wish that some learned pundit would give us a good definition +of romance, would describe in words that feeling with which our +hearts are so pestered when we are young, which makes us sigh for +we know not what, and forbids us to be contented with what God +sends us. We invest female beauty with impossible +attributes, and are angry because our women have not the +spiritualised souls of angels, anxious as we are that they should +also be human in the flesh. A man looks at her he would +love as at a distant landscape in a mountainous land. The +peaks are glorious with more than the beauty of earth and rock +and vegetation. He dreams of some mysterious grandeur of +design which tempts him on under the hot sun, and over the sharp +rock, till he has reached the mountain goal which he had set +before him. But when there, he finds that the beauty is +well-nigh gone, and as for that delicious mystery on which his +soul had fed, it has vanished for ever.</p> +<p>I know all about it now, and am, as I said, content. +Beneath those deep black eyes there lay a well of love, good, +honest, homely love, love of father and husband and children that +were to come—of that love which loves to see the loved ones +prospering in honesty. That noble brow—for it is +noble; I am unchanged in that opinion, and will go unchanged to +my grave—covers thoughts as to the welfare of many, and an +intellect fitted to the management of a household, of servants, +namely, and children, and perchance a husband. That mouth +can speak words of wisdom, of very useful wisdom—though of +poetry it has latterly uttered little that was original. +Poetry and romance! They are splendid mountain views seen +in the distance. So let men be content to see them, and not +attempt to tread upon the fallacious heather of the mystic +hills.</p> +<p>In the first week of my sojourn in Seville I spoke no word of +overt love to Maria, thinking, as I confess, to induce her +thereby to alter her mode of conduct to myself. “She +knows that I have come here to make love to her—to repeat +my offer; and she will at any rate be chagrined if I am slow to +do so.” But it had no effect. At home my mother +was rather particular about her table, and Maria’s greatest +efforts seemed to be used in giving me as nice dinners as we gave +her. In those days I did not care a straw about my dinner, +and so I took an opportunity of telling her. “Dear +me,” said she, looking at me almost with grief, “do +you not? What a pity! And do you not like music +either.” “Oh, yes, I adore it,” I +replied. I felt sure at the time that had I been born in +her own sunny clime, she would never have talked to me about +eating. But that was my mistake.</p> +<p>I used to walk out with her about the city, seeing all that is +there of beauty and magnificence. And in what city is there +more that is worth the seeing? At first this was very +delightful to me, for I felt that I was blessed with a privilege +that would not be granted to any other man. But its value +soon fell in my eyes, for others would accost her, and walk on +the other side, talking to her in Spanish, as though I hardly +existed, or were a servant there for her protection. And I +was not allowed to take her arm, and thus to appropriate her, as +I should have done in England. “No, John,” she +said, with the sweetest, prettiest smile, “we don’t +do that here; only when people are married.” And she +made this allusion to married life out, openly, with no slightest +tremor on her tongue.</p> +<p>“Oh, I beg pardon,” said I, drawing back my hand, +and feeling angry with myself for not being fully acquainted with +all the customs of a foreign country.</p> +<p>“You need not beg pardon,” said she; “when +we were in England we always walked so. It is just a +custom, you know.” And then I saw her drop her large +dark eyes to the ground, and bow gracefully in answer to some +salute.</p> +<p>I looked round, and saw that we had been joined by a young +cavalier,—a Spanish nobleman, as I saw at once; a man with +jet black hair, and a straight nose, and a black moustache, and +patent leather boots, very slim and very tall, and—though I +would not confess it then—uncommonly handsome. I +myself am inclined to be stout, my hair is light, my nose broad, +I have no hair on my upper lip, and my whiskers are rough and +uneven. “I could punch your head though, my fine +fellow,” said I to myself, when I saw that he placed +himself at Maria’s side, “and think very little of +the achievement.”</p> +<p>The wretch went on with us round the plaza for some quarter of +an hour talking Spanish with the greatest fluency, and she was +every whit as fluent. Of course I could not understand a +word that they said. Of all positions that a man can +occupy, I think that that is about the most uncomfortable; and I +cannot say that, even up to this day, I have quite forgiven her +for that quarter of an hour.</p> +<p>“I shall go in,” said I, unable to bear my +feelings, and preparing to leave her. “The heat is +unendurable.”</p> +<p>“Oh dear, John, why did you not speak before?” she +answered. “You cannot leave me here, you know, as I +am in your charge; but I will go with you almost +directly.” And then she finished her conversation +with the Spaniard, speaking with an animation she had never +displayed in her conversations with me.</p> +<p>It had been agreed between us for two or three days before +this, that we were to rise early on the following morning for the +sake of ascending the tower of the cathedral, and visiting the +Giralda, as the iron figure is called, which turns upon a pivot +on the extreme summit. We had often wandered together up +and down the long dark gloomy aisle of the stupendous building, +and had, together, seen its treasury of art; but as yet we had +not performed the task which has to be achieved by all visitors +to Seville; and in order that we might have a clear view over the +surrounding country, and not be tormented by the heat of an +advanced sun, we had settled that we would ascend the Giralda +before breakfast.</p> +<p>And now, as I walked away from the plaza towards Mr. +Daguilar’s house, with Maria by my side, I made up my mind +that I would settle my business during this visit to the +cathedral. Yes, and I would so manage the settlement that +there should be no doubt left as to my intentions and my own +ideas. I would not be guilty of shilly-shally conduct; I +would tell her frankly what I felt and what I thought, and would +make her understand that I did not desire her hand if I could not +have her heart. I did not value the kindness of her manner, +seeing that that kindness sprung from indifference rather than +passion; and so I would declare to her. And I would ask +her, also, who was this young man with whom she was +intimate—for whom all her volubility and energy of tone +seemed to be employed? She had told me once that it behoved +her to consult a friend in Seville as to the expediency of her +marriage with me. Was this the friend whom she had wished +to consult? If so, she need not trouble herself. +Under such circumstances I should decline the connection! +And I resolved that I would find out how this might be. A +man who proposes to take a woman to his bosom as his wife, has a +right to ask for information—ay, and to receive it +too. It flashed upon my mind at this moment that Donna +Maria was well enough inclined to come to me as my wife, but +—. I could hardly define the “buts” to +myself, for there were three or four of them. Why did she +always speak to me in a tone of childish affection, as though I +were a schoolboy home for the holidays? I would have all +this out with her on the tower on the following morning, standing +under the Giralda.</p> +<p>On that morning we met together in the patio, soon after five +o’clock, and started for the cathedral. She looked +beautiful, with her black mantilla over her head, and with black +gloves on, and her black morning silk dress—beautiful, +composed, and at her ease, as though she were well satisfied to +undertake this early morning walk from feelings of good +nature—sustained, probably, by some under-current of a +deeper sentiment. Well; I would know all about it before I +returned to her father’s house.</p> +<p>There hardly stands, as I think, on the earth, a building more +remarkable than the cathedral of Seville, and hardly one more +grand. Its enormous size; its gloom and darkness; the +richness of ornamentation in the details, contrasted with the +severe simplicity of the larger outlines; the variety of its +architecture; the glory of its paintings; and the wondrous +splendour of its metallic decoration, its altar-friezes, screens, +rails, gates, and the like, render it, to my mind, the first in +interest among churches. It has not the coloured glass of +Chartres, or the marble glory of Milan, or such a forest of +aisles as Antwerp, or so perfect a hue in stone as Westminster, +nor in mixed beauty of form and colour does it possess anything +equal to the choir of Cologne; but, for combined magnificence and +awe-compelling grandeur, I regard it as superior to all other +ecclesiastical edifices.</p> +<p>It is its deep gloom with which the stranger is so greatly +struck on his first entrance. In a region so hot as the +south of Spain, a cool interior is a main object with the +architect, and this it has been necessary to effect by the +exclusion of light; consequently the church is dark, mysterious, +and almost cold. On the morning in question, as we entered, +it seemed to be filled with gloom, and the distant sound of a +slow footstep here and there beyond the transept inspired one +almost with awe. Maria, when she first met me, had begun to +talk with her usual smile, offering me coffee and a biscuit +before I started. “I never eat biscuit,” I +said, with almost a severe tone, as I turned from her. That +dark, horrid man of the plaza—would she have offered him a +cake had she been going to walk with him in the gloom of the +morning? After that little had been spoken between +us. She walked by my side with her accustomed smile; but +she had, as I flattered myself, begun to learn that I was not to +be won by a meaningless good nature. “We are lucky in +our morning for the view!” that was all she said, speaking +with that peculiarly clear, but slow pronunciation which she had +assumed in learning our language.</p> +<p>We entered the cathedral, and, walking the whole length of the +aisle, left it again at the porter’s porch at the farther +end. Here we passed through a low door on to the stone +flight of steps, and at once began to ascend. “There +are a party of your countrymen up before us,” said Maria; +“the porter says that they went through the lodge half an +hour since.” “I hope they will return before we +are on the top,” said I, bethinking myself of the task that +was before me. And indeed my heart was hardly at ease +within me, for that which I had to say would require all the +spirit of which I was master.</p> +<p>The ascent to the Giralda is very long and very fatiguing; and +we had to pause on the various landings and in the singular +belfry in order that Miss Daguilar might recruit her strength and +breath. As we rested on one of these occasions, in a +gallery which runs round the tower below the belfry, we heard a +great noise of shouting, and a clattering of sticks among the +bells. “It is the party of your countrymen who went +up before us,” said she. “What a pity that +Englishmen should always make so much noise!” And +then she spoke in Spanish to the custodian of the bells, who is +usually to be found in a little cabin up there within the +tower. “He says that they went up shouting like +demons,” continued Maria; and it seemed to me that she +looked as though I ought to be ashamed of the name of an +Englishman. “They may not be so solemn in their +demeanour as Spaniards,” I answered; “but, for all +that, there may be quite as much in them.”</p> +<p>We then again began to mount, and before we had ascended much +farther we passed my three countrymen. They were young men, +with gray coats and gray trousers, with slouched hats, and +without gloves. They had fair faces and fair hair, and +swung big sticks in their hands, with crooked handles. They +laughed and talked loud, and, when we met them, seemed to be +racing with each other; but nevertheless they were +gentlemen. No one who knows by sight what an English +gentleman is, could have doubted that; but I did acknowledge to +myself that they should have remembered that the edifice they +were treading was a church, and that the silence they were +invading was the cherished property of a courteous people.</p> +<p>“They are all just the same as big boys,” said +Maria. The colour instantly flew into my face, and I felt +that it was my duty to speak up for my own countrymen. The +word “boys” especially wounded my ears. It was +as a boy that she treated me; but, on looking at that befringed +young Spanish Don—who was not, apparently, my elder in +age—she had recognised a man. However, I said nothing +further till I reached the summit. One cannot speak with +manly dignity while one is out of breath on a staircase.</p> +<p>“There, John,” she said, stretching her hands away +over the fair plain of the Guadalquivir, as soon as we stood +against the parapet; “is not that lovely?”</p> +<p>I would not deign to notice this. “Maria,” I +said, “I think that you are too hard upon my +countrymen?”</p> +<p>“Too hard! no; for I love them. They are so good +and industrious; and come home to their wives, and take care of +their children. But why do they make themselves +so—so—what the French call gauche?”</p> +<p>“Good and industrious, and come home to their +wives!” thought I. “I believe you hardly +understand us as yet,” I answered. “Our +domestic virtues are not always so very prominent; but, I +believe, we know how to conduct ourselves as gentlemen: at any +rate, as well as Spaniards.” I was very +angry—not at the faults, but at the good qualities imputed +to us.</p> +<p>“In affairs of business, yes,” said Maria, with a +look of firm confidence in her own opinion—that look of +confidence which she has never lost, and I pray that she may +never lose it while I remain with her—“but in the +little intercourses of the world, no! A Spaniard never +forgets what is personally due either to himself or his +neighbours. If he is eating an onion, he eats it as an +onion should be eaten.”</p> +<p>“In such matters as that he is very grand, no +doubt,” said I, angrily.</p> +<p>“And why should you not eat an onion properly, +John? Now, I heard a story yesterday from Don—about +two Englishmen, which annoyed me very much.” I did +not exactly catch the name of the Don in question but I felt +through every nerve in my body that it was the man who had been +talking to her on the plaza.</p> +<p>“And what have they done?” said I. +“But it is the same everywhere. We are always abused; +but, nevertheless, no people are so welcome. At any rate, +we pay for the mischief we do.” I was angry with +myself the moment the words were out of my mouth, for, after all, +there is no feeling more mean than that pocket-confidence with +which an Englishman sometimes swaggers.</p> +<p>“There was no mischief done in this case,” she +answered. “It was simply that two men have made +themselves ridiculous for ever. The story is all about +Seville, and, of course, it annoys me that they should be +Englishmen.”</p> +<p>“And what did they do?”</p> +<p>“The Marquis D’Almavivas was coming up to Seville +in the boat, and they behaved to him in the most outrageous +manner. He is here now and is going to give a series of +fêtes. Of course he will not ask a single +Englishman.”</p> +<p>“We shall manage to live even though the Marquis +D’Almavivas may frown upon us,” said I, proudly.</p> +<p>“He is the richest, and also the best of our +noblemen,” continued Maria; “and I never heard of +anything so absurd as what they did to him. It made me +blush when Don — told me.” Don Tomàs, I +thought she said.</p> +<p>“If he be the best of your noblemen, how comes it that +he is angry because he has met two vulgar men? It is not to +be supposed that every Englishman is a gentleman.”</p> +<p>“Angry! Oh, no! he was not angry; he enjoyed the +joke too much for that. He got completely the best of them, +though they did not know it; poor fools! How would your +Lord John Russell behave if two Spaniards in an English railway +carriage were to pull him about and tear his clothes?”</p> +<p>“He would give them in charge to a policeman, of +course,” said I, speaking of such a matter with the +contempt it deserved.</p> +<p>“If that were done here your ambassador would be +demanding national explanations. But Almavivas did much +better;—he laughed at them without letting them know +it.”</p> +<p>“But do you mean that they took hold of him violently, +without any provocation? They must have been +drunk.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no, they were sober enough. I did not see it, +so I do not quite know exactly how it was, but I understand that +they committed themselves most absurdly, absolutely took hold of +his coat and tore it, and—; but they did such ridiculous +things that I cannot tell you.” And yet Don +Tomàs, if that was the man’s name, had been able to +tell her, and she had been able to listen to him.</p> +<p>“‘What made them take hold of the marquis?” +said I.</p> +<p>“Curiosity, I suppose,” she answered. +“He dresses somewhat fancifully, and they could not +understand that any one should wear garments different from their +own.” But even then the blow did not strike home upon +me.</p> +<p>“Is it not pretty to look down upon the quiet +town?” she said, coming close up to me, so that the skirt +of her dress pressed me, and her elbow touched my arm. Now +was the moment I should have asked her how her heart stood +towards me; but I was sore and uncomfortable, and my destiny was +before me. She was willing enough to let these English +faults pass without further notice, but I would not allow the +subject I drop.</p> +<p>“I will find out who these men were,” said I, +“and learn the truth of it. When did it +occur?”</p> +<p>“Last Thursday, I think he said.”</p> +<p>“Why, that was the day we came up in the boat, Johnson +and myself. There was no marquis there then, and we were +the only Englishmen on board.”</p> +<p>“It was on Thursday, certainly, because it was well +known in Seville that he arrived on that day. You must have +remarked him because he talks English perfectly—though +by-the-bye, these men would go on chattering before him about +himself as though it were impossible that a Spaniard should know +their language. They are ignorant of Spanish, and they +cannot bring themselves to believe that any one should be better +educated than themselves.”</p> +<p>Now the blow had fallen, and I straightway appreciated the +necessity of returning immediately to Clapham where my family +resided, and giving up for ever all idea of Spanish +connections. I had resolved to assert the full strength of +my manhood on that tower, and now words had been spoken which +left me weak as a child. I felt that I was shivering, and +did not dare to pronounce the truth which must be made +known. As to speaking of love, and signifying my pleasure +that Don Tomàs should for the future be kept at a +distance, any such effort was quite beyond me. Had Don +Tomàs been there, he might have walked off with her from +before my face without a struggle on my part. “Now I +remember about it,” she continued, “I think he must +have been in the boat on Thursday.”</p> +<p>“And now that I remember,” I replied, turning away +to hide my embarrassment, “he was there. Your friend +down below in the plaza seems to have made out a grand +story. No doubt he is not fond of the English. There +was such a man there, and I did take hold—”</p> +<p>“Oh, John, was it you?”</p> +<p>“Yes, Donna Maria, it was I; and if Lord John Russell +were to dress himself in the same way—” But I +had no time to complete my description of what might occur under +so extravagantly impossible a combination of circumstances, for +as I was yet speaking, the little door leading out on to the +leads of the tower was opened and my friend, the mayo of the +boat, still bearing gewgaws on his back, stepped up on to the +platform. My eye instantly perceived that the one pendule +was still missing from his jacket. He did not come alone, +but three other gentlemen followed him, who, however, had no +peculiarities in their dress. He saw me at once and bowed +and smiled; and then observing Donna Maria, he lifted his cap +from his head, and addressing himself to her in Spanish, began to +converse with her as though she were an old friend.</p> +<p>“Señor,” said Maria, after the first words +of greeting had been spoken between them; “you must permit +me to present to you my father’s most particular friend, +and my own,—Mr. Pomfret; John, this is the Marquis +D’Almavivas.”</p> +<p>I cannot now describe the grace with which this introduction +was effected, or the beauty of her face as she uttered the +word. There was a boldness about her as though she had +said, “I know it all—the whole story. But, in +spite of that you must take him on my representation, and be +gracious to him in spite of what he has done. You must be +content to do that; or in quarrelling with him you must quarrel +with me also.” And it was done at the spur of the +moment—without delay. She, who not five minutes since +had been loudly condemning the unknown Englishman for his +rudeness, had already pardoned him, now that he was known to be +her friend; and had determined that he should be pardoned by +others also or that she would share his disgrace. I +recognised the nobleness of this at the moment; but, +nevertheless, I was so sore that I would almost have preferred +that she should have disowned me.</p> +<p>The marquis immediately lifted his cap with his left hand +while he gave me his right. “I have already had the +pleasure of meeting this gentleman,” he said; “we had +some conversation in the boat together.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said I, pointing to his rent, “and +you still bear the marks of our encounter.”</p> +<p>“Was it not delightful, Donna Maria,” he +continued, turning to her; “your friend’s friend took +me for a torero?”</p> +<p>“And it served you properly, señor,” said +Donna Maria, laughing, “you have no right to go about with +all those rich ornaments upon you.”</p> +<p>“Oh! quite properly; indeed, I make no complaint; and I +must beg your friend to understand, and his friend also, how +grateful I am for their solicitude as to my pecuniary +welfare. They were inclined to be severe on me for being so +extravagant in such trifles. I was obliged to explain that +I had no wife at home kept without her proper allowance of +dresses, in order that I might be gay.”</p> +<p>“They are foreigners, and you should forgive their +error,” said she.</p> +<p>“And in token that I do so,” said the marquis, +“I shall beg your friend to accept the little ornament +which attracted his attention.” And so saying, he +pulled the identical button out of his pocket, and gracefully +proffered it to me.</p> +<p>“I shall carry it about with me always,” said I, +accepting it, “as a memento of humiliation. When I +look at it, I shall ever remember the folly of an Englishman and +the courtesy of a Spaniard;” and as I made the speech I +could not but reflect whether it might, under any circumstances, +be possible that Lord John Russell should be induced to give a +button off his coat to a Spaniard.</p> +<p>There were other civil speeches made, and before we left the +tower the marquis had asked me to his parties, and exacted from +me an unwilling promise that I would attend them. +“The señora,” he said, bowing again to Maria, +“would, he was sure, grace them. She had done so on +the previous year; and as I had accepted his little present I was +bound to acknowledge him as my friend.” All this was +very pretty, and of course I said that I would go, but I had not +at that time the slightest intention of doing so. Maria had +behaved admirably; she had covered my confusion, and shown +herself not ashamed to own me, delinquent as I was; but, not the +less, had she expressed her opinion, in language terribly strong, +of the awkwardness of which I had been guilty, and had shown +almost an aversion to my English character. I should leave +Seville as quickly as I could, and should certainly not again put +myself in the way of the Marquis D’Almavivas. Indeed, +I dreaded the moment that I should be first alone with her, and +should find myself forced to say something indicative of my +feelings—to hear something also indicative of +feelings. I had come out this morning resolved to demand my +rights and to exercise them—and now my only wish was to run +away. I hated the marquis, and longed to be alone that I +might cast his button from me. To think that a man should +be so ruined by such a trifle!</p> +<p>We descended that prodigious flight without a word upon the +subject, and almost without a word at all. She had carried +herself well in the presence of Almavivas, and had been too proud +to seem ashamed of her companion; but now, as I could well see, +her feelings of disgust and contempt had returned. When I +begged her not to hurry herself, she would hardly answer me; and +when she did speak, her voice was constrained and unlike +herself. And yet how beautiful she was! Well, my +dream of Spanish love must be over. But I was sure of this; +that having known her, and given her my heart, I could never +afterwards share it with another.</p> +<p>We came out at last on the dark, gloomy aisle of the +cathedral, and walked together without a word up along the side +of the choir, till we came to the transept. There was not a +soul near us, and not a sound was to be heard but the distant, +low pattering of a mass, then in course of celebration at some +far-off chapel in the cathedral. When we got to the +transept Maria turned a little, as though she was going to the +transept door, and then stopped herself. She stood still; +and when I stood also, she made two steps towards me, and put her +hand on my arm. “Oh, John!” she said.</p> +<p>“‘Well,” said I; “after all it does +not signify. You can make a joke of it when my back is +turned.”</p> +<p>“Dearest John!”—she had never spoken to me +in that way before—“you must not be angry with +me. It is better that we should explain to each other, is +it not?”</p> +<p>“Oh, much better. I am very glad you heard of it +at once. I do not look at it quite in the same light that +you do; but nevertheless—”</p> +<p>“What do you mean? But I know you are angry with +me. And yet you cannot think that I intended those words +for you. Of course I know now that there was nothing rude +in what passed.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but there was.”</p> +<p>“No, I am sure there was not. You could not be +rude though you are so free hearted. I see it all now, and +so does the marquis. You will like him so much when you +come to know him. Tell me that you won’t be cross +with me for what I have said. Sometimes I think that I have +displeased you, and yet my whole wish has been to welcome you to +Seville, and to make you comfortable as an old friend. +Promise me that you will not be cross with me.”</p> +<p>Cross with her! I certainly had no intention of being +cross, but I had begun to think that she would not care what my +humour might be. “Maria,” I said, taking hold +of her hand.</p> +<p>“No, John, do not do that. It is in the church, +you know.”</p> +<p>“Maria, will you answer me a question?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” she said, very slowly, looking dawn upon +the stone slabs beneath our feet.</p> +<p>“Do you love me?”</p> +<p>“Love you!”</p> +<p>“Yes, do you love me? You were to give me an +answer here, in Seville, and now I ask for it. I have +almost taught myself to think that it is needless to ask; and now +this horrid mischance—”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” said she, speaking very +quickly.</p> +<p>“Why this miserable blunder about the marquis’s +button! After that I suppose—”</p> +<p>“The marquis! Oh, John, is that to make a +difference between you and me?—a little joke like +that?”</p> +<p>“But does it not?”</p> +<p>“Make a change between us!—such a thing as +that! Oh, John!”</p> +<p>“But tell me, Maria, what am I to hope? If you +will say that you can love me, I shall care nothing for the +marquis. In that case I can bear to be laughed +at.”</p> +<p>“Who will dare to laugh at you? Not the marquis, +whom I am sure you will like.”</p> +<p>“Your friend in this plaza, who told you of all +this.”</p> +<p>“What, poor Tomàs!”</p> +<p>“I do not know about his being poor. I mean the +gentleman who was with you last night.”</p> +<p>“Yes, Tomàs. You do not know who he +is?”</p> +<p>“Not in the least.”</p> +<p>“How droll! He is your own clerk—partly your +own, now that you are one of the firm. And, John, I mean to +make you do something for him; he is such a good fellow; and last +year he married a young girl whom I love—oh, almost like a +sister.”</p> +<p>Do something for him! Of course I would. I +promised, then and there, that I would raise his salary to any +conceivable amount that a Spanish clerk could desire; which +promise I have since kept, if not absolutely to the letter, at +any rate, to an extent which has been considered satisfactory by +the gentleman’s wife.</p> +<p>“But, Maria—dearest Maria—”</p> +<p>“Remember, John, we are in the church; and poor papa +will be waiting breakfast.”</p> +<p>I need hardly continue the story further. It will be +known to all that my love-suit throve in spite of my unfortunate +raid on the button of the Marquis D’Almavivas, at whose +series of fêtes through that month I was, I may boast, an +honoured guest. I have since that had the pleasure of +entertaining him in my own poor house in England, and one of our +boys bears his Christian name.</p> +<p>From that day in which I ascended the Giralda to this present +day in which I write, I have never once had occasion to complain +of a deficiency of romance either in Maria Daguilar or in Maria +Pomfret.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 3615-h.htm or 3615-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/1/3615 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.05/20/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, +from the 1864 Chapman and Hall edition. + + + + + +JOHN BULL ON THE GUADALQUIVIR. +from "Tales from all Countries" + +by Anthony Trollope + + + + +I am an Englishman, living, as all Englishman should do, in England, +and my wife would not, I think, be well pleased were any one to +insinuate that she were other than an Englishwoman; but in the +circumstances of my marriage I became connected with the south of +Spain, and the narrative which I am to tell requires that I should +refer to some of those details. + +The Pomfrets and Daguilars have long been in trade together in this +country, and one of the partners has usually resided at Seville for +the sake of the works which the firm there possesses. My father, +James Pomfret, lived there for ten years before his marriage; and +since that and up to the present period, old Mr. Daguilar has always +been on the spot. He was, I believe, born in Spain, but he came very +early to England; he married an English wife, and his sons had been +educated exclusively in England. His only daughter, Maria Daguilar, +did not pass so large a proportion of her early life in this country, +but she came to us for a visit at the age of seventeen, and when she +returned I made up my mind that I most assuredly would go after her. +So I did, and she is now sitting on the other side of the fireplace +with a legion of small linen habiliments in a huge basket by her +side. + +I felt, at the first, that there was something lacking to make my cup +of love perfectly delightful. It was very sweet, but there was +wanting that flower of romance which is generally added to the +heavenly draught by a slight admixture of opposition. I feared that +the path of my true love would run too smooth. When Maria came to +our house, my mother and elder sister seemed to be quite willing that +I should be continually alone with her; and she had not been there +ten days before my father, by chance, remarked that there was nothing +old Mr. Daguilar valued so highly as a thorough feeling of intimate +alliance between the two families which had been so long connected in +trade. I was never told that Maria was to be my wife, but I felt +that the same thing was done without words; and when, after six weeks +of somewhat elaborate attendance upon her, I asked her to be Mrs. +John Pomfret, I had no more fear of a refusal, or even of hesitation +on her part, than I now have when I suggest to my partner some +commercial transaction of undoubted advantage. + +But Maria, even at that age, had about her a quiet sustained decision +of character quite unlike anything I had seen in English girls. I +used to hear, and do still hear, how much more flippant is the +education of girls in France and Spain than in England; and I know +that this is shown to be the result of many causes--the Roman +Catholic religion being, perhaps, chief offender; but, nevertheless, +I rarely see in one of our own young women the same power of a self- +sustained demeanour as I meet on the Continent. It goes no deeper +than the demeanour, people say. I can only answer that I have not +found that shallowness in my own wife. + +Miss Daguilar replied to me that she was not prepared with an answer; +she had only known me six weeks, and wanted more time to think about +it; besides, there was one in her own country with whom she would +wish to consult. I knew she had no mother; and as for consulting old +Mr. Daguilar on such a subject, that idea, I knew, could not have +troubled her. Besides, as I afterwards learned, Mr. Daguilar had +already proposed the marriage to his partner exactly as he would have +proposed a division of assets. My mother declared that Maria was a +foolish chit--in which by-the-bye she showed her entire ignorance of +Miss Daguilar's character; my eldest sister begged that no constraint +might he put on the young lady's inclinations--which provoked me to +assert that the young lady's inclinations were by no means opposed to +my own; and my father, in the coolest manner suggested that the +matter might stand over for twelve months, and that I might then go +to Seville, and see about it! Stand over for twelve months! Would +not Maria, long before that time, have been snapped up and carried +off by one of those inordinately rich Spanish grandees who are still +to be met with occasionally in Andalucia? + +My father's dictum, however, had gone forth; and Maria, in the +calmest voice, protested that she thought it very wise. I should be +less of a boy by that time, she said, smiling on me, but driving +wedges between every fibre of my body as she spoke. "Be it so," I +said, proudly. "At any rate, I am not so much of a boy that I shall +forget you." "And, John, you still have the trade to learn," she +added, with her deliciously foreign intonation--speaking very slowly, +but with perfect pronunciation. The trade to learn! However, I said +not a word, but stalked out of the room, meaning to see her no more +before she went. But I could not resist attending on her in the hall +as she started; and, when she took leave of us, she put her face up +to be kissed by me, as she did by my father, and seemed to receive as +much emotion from one embrace as from the other. "He'll go out by +the packet of the 1st April," said my father, speaking of me as +though I were a bale of goods. "Ah! that will be so nice," said +Maria, settling her dress in the carriage; "the oranges will be ripe +for him then!" + +On the 17th April I did sail, and felt still very like a bale of +goods. I had received one letter from her, in which she merely +stated that her papa would have a room ready for me on my arrival; +and, in answer to that, I had sent an epistle somewhat longer, and, +as I then thought, a little more to the purpose. Her turn of mind +was more practical than mine, and I must confess my belief that she +did not appreciate my poetry. + +I landed at Cadiz, and was there joined by an old family friend, one +of the very best fellows that ever lived. He was to accompany me up +as far as Seville; and, as he had lived for a year or two at Xeres, +was supposed to be more Spanish almost than a Spaniard. His name was +Johnson, and he was in the wine trade; and whether for travelling or +whether for staying at home--whether for paying you a visit in your +own house, or whether for entertaining you in his--there never was +(and I am prepared to maintain there never will be) a stancher +friend, choicer companion, or a safer guide than Thomas Johnson. +Words cannot produce a eulogium sufficient for his merits. But, as I +have since learned, he was not quite so Spanish as I had imagined. +Three years among the bodegas of Xeres had taught him, no doubt, to +appreciate the exact twang of a good, dry sherry; but not, as I now +conceive, the exactest flavour of the true Spanish character. I was +very lucky, however, in meeting such a friend, and now reckon him as +one of the stanchest allies of the house of Pomfret, Daguilar, and +Pomfret. + +He met me at Cadiz, took me about the town, which appeared to me to +be of no very great interest;--though the young ladies were all very +well. But, in this respect, I was then a Stoic, till such time as I +might be able to throw myself at the feet of her whom I was ready to +proclaim the most lovely of all the Dulcineas of Andalucia. He +carried me up by boat and railway to Xeres; gave me a most terrific +headache, by dragging me out into the glare of the sun, after I had +tasted some half a dozen different wines, and went through all the +ordinary hospitalities. On the next day we returned to Puerto, and +from thence getting across to St. Lucar and Bonanza, found ourselves +on the banks of the Guadalquivir, and took our places in the boat for +Seville. I need say but little to my readers respecting that far- +famed river. Thirty years ago we in England generally believed that +on its banks was to be found a pure elysium of pastoral beauty; that +picturesque shepherds and lovely maidens here fed their flocks in +fields of asphodel; that the limpid stream ran cool and crystal over +bright stones and beneath perennial shade; and that every thing on +the Guadalquivir was as lovely and as poetical as its name. Now, it +is pretty widely known that no uglier river oozes down to its bourn +in the sea through unwholesome banks of low mud. It is brown and +dirty; ungifted by any scenic advantage; margined for miles upon +miles by huge, flat, expansive fields, in which cattle are reared,-- +the bulls wanted for the bullfights among other; and birds of prey +sit constant on the shore, watching for the carcases of such as die. +Such are the charms of the golden Guadalquivir. + +At first we were very dull on board that steamer. I never found +myself in a position in which there was less to do. There was a +nasty smell about the little boat which made me almost ill; every +turn in the river was so exactly like the last, that we might have +been standing still; there was no amusement except eating, and that, +when once done, was not of a kind to make an early repetition +desirable. Even Johnson was becoming dull, and I began to doubt +whether I was so desirous as I once had been to travel the length and +breadth of all Spain. But about noon a little incident occurred +which did for a time remove some of our tedium. The boat had stopped +to take in passengers on the river; and, among others, a man had come +on board dressed in a fashion that, to my eyes, was equally strange +and picturesque. Indeed, his appearance was so singular, that I +could not but regard him with care, though I felt at first averse to +stare at a fellow-passenger on account of his clothes. He was a man +of about fifty, but as active apparently as though not more than +twenty five; he was of low stature, but of admirable make; his hair +was just becoming grizzled, but was short and crisp and well cared +for; his face was prepossessing, having a look of good humour added +to courtesy, and there was a pleasant, soft smile round his mouth +which ingratiated one at the first sight. But it was his dress +rather than his person which attracted attention. He wore the +ordinary Andalucian cap--of which such hideous parodies are now +making themselves common in England--but was not contented with the +usual ornament of the double tuft. The cap was small, and jaunty; +trimmed with silk velvet--as is common here with men careful to adorn +their persons; but this man's cap was finished off with a jewelled +button and golden filigree work. He was dressed in a short jacket +with a stand up collar; and that also was covered with golden buttons +and with golden button-holes. It was all gilt down the front, and +all lace down the back. The rows of buttons were double; and those +of the more backward row hung down in heavy pendules. His waistcoat +was of coloured silk--very pretty to look at; and ornamented with a +small sash, through which gold threads were worked. All the buttons +of his breeches also were of gold; and there were gold tags to all +the button-holes. His stockings were of the finest silk, and clocked +with gold from the knee to the ankle. + +Dress any Englishman in such a garb and he will at once give you the +idea of a hog in armour. In the first place he will lack the proper +spirit to carry it off, and in the next place the motion of his limbs +will disgrace the ornaments they bear. "And so best," most +Englishmen will say. Very likely; and, therefore, let no Englishman +try it. But my Spaniard did not look at like a hog in armour. He +walked slowly down the plank into the boat, whistling lowly but very +clearly a few bars from a opera tune. It was plain to see that he +was master of himself, of his ornaments, and of his limbs. He had no +appearance of thinking that men were looking at him, or of feeling +that he was beauteous in his attire;--nothing could be more natural +than his foot-fall, or the quiet glance of his cheery gray eye. He +walked up to the captain, who held the helm, and lightly raised his +hand to his cap. The captain, taking one hand from the wheel, did +the same, and then the stranger, turning his back to the stern of the +vessel, and fronting down the river with his face, continued to +whistle slowly, clearly, and in excellent time. Grand as were his +clothes they were no burden on his mind. + +"What is he?" said I, going up to my friend Johnson with a whisper. + +"Well, I've been looking at him," said Johnson--which was true +enough; "he's a -- an uncommonly good-looking fellow, isn't he?" + +"Particularly so," said I; "and got up quite irrespective of expense. +Is he a--a--a gentleman, now, do you think?" + +"Well, those things are so different in Spain that it's almost +impossible to make an Englishman understand them. One learns to know +all this sort of people by being with them in the country, but one +can't explain." + +"No; exactly. Are they real gold?" + +"Yes, yes; I dare say they are. They sometimes have them silver +gilt." + +"It is quite a common thing, then, isn't it?" asked I. + +"Well, not exactly; that--Ah! yes; I see! of course. He is a +torero." + +"A what?" + +"A mayo. I will explain it all to you. You will see them about in +all places, and you will get used to them." + +"But I haven't seen one other as yet." + +"No, and they are not all so gay as this, nor so new in their finery, +you know." + +"And what is a torero?" + +"Well, a torero is a man engaged in bull-fighting." + +"Oh! he is a matador, is he?" said I, looking at him with more than +all my eyes. + +"No, not exactly that;--not of necessity. He is probably a mayo. A +fellow that dresses himself smart for fairs, and will be seen hanging +about with the bull-fighters. What would be a sporting fellow in +England--only he won't drink and curse like a low man on the turf +there. Come, shall we go and speak to him?" + +"I can't talk to him," said I, diffident of my Spanish. I had +received lessons in England from Maria Daguilar; but six weeks is +little enough for making love, let alone the learning of a foreign +language. + +"Oh! I'll do the talking. You'll find the language easy enough +before long. It soon becomes the same as English to you, when you +live among them." And then Johnson, walking up to the stranger, +accosted him with that good-natured familiarity with which a +thoroughly nice fellow always opens a conversation with his inferior. +Of course I could not understand the words which were exchanged; but +it was clear enough that the "mayo" took the address in good part, +and was inclined to be communicative and social. + +"They are all of pure gold," said Johnson, turning to me after a +minute, making as he spoke a motion with his head to show the +importance of the information. + +"Are they indeed?" said I. "Where on earth did a fellow like that +get them?" Whereupon Johnson again returned to his conversation with +the man. After another minute he raised his hand, and began to +finger the button on the shoulder; and to aid him in doing so, the +man of the bull-ring turned a little on one side. + +"They are wonderfully well made," said Johnson, talking to me, and +still fingering the button. "They are manufactured, he says, at +Osuna, and he tells me that they make them better there than anywhere +else." + +"I wonder what the whole set would cost?" said I. "An enormous deal +of money for a fellow like him, I should think!" + +"Over twelve ounces," said Johnson, having asked the question; "and +that will be more than forty pounds." + +"What an uncommon ass he must be!" said I. + +As Johnson by this time was very closely scrutinising the whole set +of ornaments I thought I might do so also, and going up close to our +friend, I too began to handle the buttons and tags on the other side. +Nothing could have been more good-humoured than he was--so much so +that I was emboldened to hold up his arm that I might see the cut of +his coat, to take off his cap and examine the make, to stuff my +finger in beneath his sash, and at last to kneel down while I +persuaded him to hold up his legs that I might look to the clocking. +The fellow was thorough good-natured, and why should I not indulge my +curiosity? + +"You'll upset him if you don't take care," said Johnson; for I had +got fast hold of him by one ankle, and was determined to finish the +survey completely. + +"Oh, no, I shan't," said I; "a bull-fighting chap can surely stand on +one leg. But what I wonder at is, how on earth he can afford it!" +Whereupon Johnson again began to interrogate him in Spanish. + +"He says he has got no children," said Johnson, having received a +reply, "and that as he has nobody but himself to look after, he is +able to allow himself such little luxuries." + +"Tell him that I say he would be better with a wife and couple of +babies," said I--and Johnson interpreted. + +"He says that he'll think of it some of these days, when he finds +that the supply of fools in the world is becoming short," said +Johnson. + +We had nearly done with him now; but after regaining my feet, I +addressed myself once more to the heavy pendules, which hung down +almost under his arm. I lifted one of these, meaning to feel its +weight between my fingers; but unfortunately I gave a lurch, probably +through the motion of the boat, and still holding by the button, tore +it almost off from our friend's coat. + +"Oh, I am so sorry," I said, in broad English. + +"It do not matter at all," he said, bowing, and speaking with equal +plainness. And then, taking a knife from his pocket, he cut the +pendule off, leaving a bit of torn cloth on the side of his jacket. + +"Upon my word, I am quite unhappy," said I; "but I always am so +awkward." Whereupon he bowed low. + +"Couldn't I make it right?" said I, bringing out my purse. + +He lifted his hand, and I saw that it was small and white; he lifted +it and gently put it upon my purse, smiling sweetly as he did so. +"Thank you, no, senor; thank you, no." And then, bowing to us both, +he walked away down into the cabin. + +"Upon my word he is a deuced well-mannered fellow," said I. + +"You shouldn't have offered him money," said Johnson; "a Spaniard +does not like it." + +"Why, I thought you could do nothing without money in this country. +Doesn't every one take bribes?" + +"Ah! yes; that is a different thing; but not the price of a button. +By Jove! he understood English, too. Did you see that?" + +"Yes; and I called him an ass! I hope he doesn't mind it." + +"Oh! no; he won't think anything about it," said Johnson. "That sort +of fellows don't. I dare say we shall see him in the bull-ring next +Sunday, and then we'll make all right with a glass of lemonade." + +And so our adventure ended with the man of the gold ornaments. I was +sorry that I had spoken English before him so heedlessly, and +resolved that I would never be guilty of such gaucherie again. But, +then, who would think that a Spanish bull-fighter would talk a +foreign language? I was sorry, also, that I had torn his coat; it +had looked so awkward; and sorry again that I had offered the man +money. Altogether I was a little ashamed of myself; but I had too +much to look forward to at Seville to allow any heaviness to remain +long at my heart; and before I had arrived at the marvellous city I +had forgotten both him and his buttons. + +Nothing could be nicer than the way in which I was welcomed at Mr. +Daguilar's house, or more kind--I may almost say affectionate--than +Maria's manner to me. But it was too affectionate; and I am not sure +that I should not have liked my reception better had she been more +diffident in her tone, and less inclined to greet me with open +warmth. As it was, she again gave me her cheek to kiss, in her +father's presence, and called me dear John, and asked me specially +after some rabbits which I had kept at home merely for a younger +sister; and then it seemed as though she were in no way embarrassed +by the peculiar circumstances of our position. Twelve months since I +had asked her to be my wife, and now she was to give me an answer; +and yet she was as assured in her gait, and as serenely joyous in her +tone, as though I were a brother just returned from college. It +could not be that she meant to refuse me, or she would not smile on +me and be so loving; but I could almost have found it in my heart to +wish that she would. "It is quite possible," said I to myself, "that +I may not be found so ready for this family bargain. A love that is +to be had like a bale of goods is not exactly the love to suit my +taste." But then, when I met her again in the morning I could no +more have quarrelled with her than I could have flown. + +I was inexpressibly charmed with the whole city, and especially with +the house in which Mr. Daguilar lived. It opened from the corner of +a narrow, unfrequented street--a corner like an elbow--and, as seen +from the exterior, there was nothing prepossessing to recommend it; +but the outer door led by a short hall or passage to an inner door or +grille, made of open ornamental iron-work, and through that we +entered a court, or patio, as they I called it. Nothing could be +more lovely or deliciously cool than was this small court. The +building on each side was covered by trellis-work; and beautiful +creepers, vines, and parasite flowers, now in the full magnificence +of the early summer, grew up and clustered round the windows. Every +inch of wall was covered, so that none of the glaring whitewash +wounded the eye. In the four corners of the patio were four large +orange-trees, covered with fruit. I would not say a word in special +praise of these, remembering that childish promise she had made on my +behalf. In the middle of the court there was a fountain, and round +about on the marble floor there were chairs, and here and there a +small table, as though the space were really a portion of the house. +It was here that we used to take our cup of coffee and smoke our +cigarettes, I and old Mr. Daguilar, while Maria sat by, not only +approving, but occasionally rolling for me the thin paper round the +fragrant weed with her taper fingers. Beyond the patio was an open +passage or gallery, filled also with flowers in pots; and then, +beyond this, one entered the drawing-room of the house. It was by no +means a princely palace or mansion, fit for the owner of untold +wealth. The rooms were not over large nor very numerous; but the +most had been made of a small space, and everything had been done to +relieve the heat of an almost tropical sun. + +"It is pretty, is it not?" she said, as she took me through it. + +"Very pretty," I said. "I wish we could live in such houses." + +"Oh, they would not do at all for dear old fat, cold, cozy England. +You are quite different, you know, in everything from us in the +south; more phlegmatic, but then so much steadier. The men and the +houses are all the same." + +I can hardly tell why, but even this wounded me. It seemed to me as +though she were inclined to put into one and the same category things +English, dull, useful, and solid; and that she was disposed to show a +sufficient appreciation for such necessaries of life, though she +herself had another and inner sense--a sense keenly alive to the +poetry of her own southern chime; and that I, as being English, was +to have no participation in this latter charm. An English husband +might do very well, the interests of the firm might make such an +arrangement desirable, such a mariage de convenance--so I argued to +myself--might be quite compatible with--with heaven only knows what +delights of superterrestial romance, from which I, as being an +English thick-headed lump of useful coarse mortality, was to be +altogether debarred. She had spoken to me of oranges, and having +finished the survey of the house, she offered me some sweet little +cakes. It could not be that of such things were the thoughts which +lay undivulged beneath the clear waters of those deep black eyes-- +undivulged to me, though no one else could have so good a right to +read those thoughts! It could not be that that noble brow gave index +of a mind intent on the trade of which she spoke so often! Words of +other sort than any that had been vouchsafed to me must fall at times +from the rich curves of that perfect month. + +So felt I then, pining for something to make me unhappy. Ah, me! I +know all about it now, and am content. But I wish that some learned +pundit would give us a good definition of romance, would describe in +words that feeling with which our hearts are so pestered when we are +young, which makes us sigh for we know not what, and forbids us to be +contented with what God sends us. We invest female beauty with +impossible attributes, and are angry because our women have not the +spiritualised souls of angels, anxious as we are that they should +also be human in the flesh. A man looks at her he would love as at a +distant landscape in a mountainous land. The peaks are glorious with +more than the beauty of earth and rock and vegetation. He dreams of +some mysterious grandeur of design which tempts him on under the hot +sun, and over the sharp rock, till he has reached the mountain goal +which he had set before him. But when there, he finds that the +beauty is well-nigh gone, and as for that delicious mystery on which +his soul had fed, it has vanished for ever. + +I know all about it now, and am, as I said, content. Beneath those +deep black eyes there lay a well of love, good, honest, homely love, +love of father and husband and children that were to come--of that +love which loves to see the loved ones prospering in honesty. That +noble brow--for it is noble; I am unchanged in that opinion, and will +go unchanged to my grave--covers thoughts as to the welfare of many, +and an intellect fitted to the management of a household, of +servants, namely, and children, and perchance a husband. That mouth +can speak words of wisdom, of very useful wisdom--though of poetry it +has latterly uttered little that was original. Poetry and romance! +They are splendid mountain views seen in the distance. So let men be +content to see them, and not attempt to tread upon the fallacious +heather of the mystic hills. + +In the first week of my sojourn in Seville I spoke no word of overt +love to Maria, thinking, as I confess, to induce her thereby to alter +her mode of conduct to myself. "She knows that I have come here to +make love to her--to repeat my offer; and she will at any rate be +chagrined if I am slow to do so." But it had no effect. At home my +mother was rather particular about her table, and Maria's greatest +efforts seemed to be used in giving me as nice dinners as we gave +her. In those days I did not care a straw about my dinner, and so I +took an opportunity of telling her. "Dear me," said she, looking at +me almost with grief, "do you not? What a pity! And do you not like +music either." "Oh, yes, I adore it," I replied. I felt sure at the +time that had I been born in her own sunny clime, she would never +have talked to me about eating. But that was my mistake. + +I used to walk out with her about the city, seeing all that is there +of beauty and magnificence. And in what city is there more that is +worth the seeing? At first this was very delightful to me, for I +felt that I was blessed with a privilege that would not be granted to +any other man. But its value soon fell in my eyes, for others would +accost her, and walk on the other side, talking to her in Spanish, as +though I hardly existed, or were a servant there for her protection. +And I was not allowed to take her arm, and thus to appropriate her, +as I should have done in England. "No, John," she said, with the +sweetest, prettiest smile, "we don't do that here; only when people +are married." And she made this allusion to married life out, +openly, with no slightest tremor on her tongue. + +"Oh, I beg pardon," said I, drawing back my hand, and feeling angry +with myself for not being fully acquainted with all the customs of a +foreign country. + +"You need not beg pardon," said she; "when we were in England we +always walked so. It is just a custom, you know." And then I saw +her drop her large dark eyes to the ground, and bow gracefully in +answer to some salute. + +I looked round, and saw that we had been joined by a young cavalier,- +-a Spanish nobleman, as I saw at once; a man with jet black hair, and +a straight nose, and a black moustache, and patent leather boots, +very slim and very tall, and--though I would not confess it then-- +uncommonly handsome. I myself am inclined to be stout, my hair is +light, my nose broad, I have no hair on my upper lip, and my whiskers +are rough and uneven. "I could punch your head though, my fine +fellow," said I to myself, when I saw that he placed himself at +Maria's side, "and think very little of the achievement." + +The wretch went on with us round the plaza for some quarter of an +hour talking Spanish with the greatest fluency, and she was every +whit as fluent. Of course I could not understand a word that they +said. Of all positions that a man can occupy, I think that that is +about the most uncomfortable; and I cannot say that, even up to this +day, I have quite forgiven her for that quarter of an hour. + +"I shall go in," said I, unable to bear my feelings, and preparing to +leave her. "The heat is unendurable." + +"Oh dear, John, why did you not speak before?" she answered. "You +cannot leave me here, you know, as I am in your charge; but I will go +with you almost directly." And then she finished her conversation +with the Spaniard, speaking with an animation she had never displayed +in her conversations with me. + +It had been agreed between us for two or three days before this, that +we were to rise early on the following morning for the sake of +ascending the tower of the cathedral, and visiting the Giralda, as +the iron figure is called, which turns upon a pivot on the extreme +summit. We had often wandered together up and down the long dark +gloomy aisle of the stupendous building, and had, together, seen its +treasury of art; but as yet we had not performed the task which has +to be achieved by all visitors to Seville; and in order that we might +have a clear view over the surrounding country, and not be tormented +by the heat of an advanced sun, we had settled that we would ascend +the Giralda before breakfast. + +And now, as I walked away from the plaza towards Mr. Daguilar's +house, with Maria by my side, I made up my mind that I would settle +my business during this visit to the cathedral. Yes, and I would so +manage the settlement that there should be no doubt left as to my +intentions and my own ideas. I would not be guilty of shilly-shally +conduct; I would tell her frankly what I felt and what I thought, and +would make her understand that I did not desire her hand if I could +not have her heart. I did not value the kindness of her manner, +seeing that that kindness sprung from indifference rather than +passion; and so I would declare to her. And I would ask her, also, +who was this young man with whom she was intimate--for whom all her +volubility and energy of tone seemed to be employed? She had told me +once that it behoved her to consult a friend in Seville as to the +expediency of her marriage with me. Was this the friend whom she had +wished to consult? If so, she need not trouble herself. Under such +circumstances I should decline the connection! And I resolved that I +would find out how this might be. A man who proposes to take a woman +to his bosom as his wife, has a right to ask for information--ay, and +to receive it too. It flashed upon my mind at this moment that Donna +Maria was well enough inclined to come to me as my wife, but --. I +could hardly define the "buts" to myself, for there were three or +four of them. Why did she always speak to me in a tone of childish +affection, as though I were a schoolboy home for the holidays? I +would have all this out with her on the tower on the following +morning, standing under the Giralda. + +On that morning we met together in the patio, soon after five +o'clock, and started for the cathedral. She looked beautiful, with +her black mantilla over her head, and with black gloves on, and her +black morning silk dress--beautiful, composed, and at her ease, as +though she were well satisfied to undertake this early morning walk +from feelings of good nature--sustained, probably, by some under- +current of a deeper sentiment. Well; I would know all about it +before I returned to her father's house. + +There hardly stands, as I think, on the earth, a building more +remarkable than the cathedral of Seville, and hardly one more grand. +Its enormous size; its gloom and darkness; the richness of +ornamentation in the details, contrasted with the severe simplicity +of the larger outlines; the variety of its architecture; the glory of +its paintings; and the wondrous splendour of its metallic decoration, +its altar-friezes, screens, rails, gates, and the like, render it, to +my mind, the first in interest among churches. It has not the +coloured glass of Chartres, or the marble glory of Milan, or such a +forest of aisles as Antwerp, or so perfect a hue in stone as +Westminster, nor in mixed beauty of form and colour does it possess +anything equal to the choir of Cologne; but, for combined +magnificence and awe-compelling grandeur, I regard it as superior to +all other ecclesiastical edifices. + +It is its deep gloom with which the stranger is so greatly struck on +his first entrance. In a region so hot as the south of Spain, a cool +interior is a main object with the architect, and this it has been +necessary to effect by the exclusion of light; consequently the +church is dark, mysterious, and almost cold. On the morning in +question, as we entered, it seemed to be filled with gloom, and the +distant sound of a slow footstep here and there beyond the transept +inspired one almost with awe. Maria, when she first met me, had +begun to talk with her usual smile, offering me coffee and a biscuit +before I started. "I never eat biscuit," I said, with almost a +severe tone, as I turned from her. That dark, horrid man of the +plaza--would she have offered him a cake had she been going to walk +with him in the gloom of the morning? After that little had been +spoken between us. She walked by my side with her accustomed smile; +but she had, as I flattered myself, begun to learn that I was not to +he won by a meaningless good nature. "We are lucky in our morning +for the view!" that was all she said, speaking with that peculiarly +clear, but slow pronunciation which she had assumed in learning our +language. + +We entered the cathedral, and, walking the whole length of the aisle, +left it again at the porter's porch at the farther end. Here we +passed through a low door on to the stone flight of steps, and at +once began to ascend. "There are a party of your countrymen up +before us," said Maria; "the porter says that they went through the +lodge half an hour since." "I hope they will return before we are on +the top," said I, bethinking myself of the task that was before me. +And indeed my heart was hardly at ease within me, for that which I +had to say would require all the spirit of which I was master. + +The ascent to the Giralda is very long and very fatiguing; and we had +to pause on the various landings and in the singular belfry in order +that Miss Daguilar might recruit her strength and breath. As we +rested on one of these occasions, in a gallery which runs round the +tower below the belfry, we heard a great noise of shouting, and a +clattering of sticks among the bells. "It is the party of your +countrymen who went up before us," said she. "What a pity that +Englishmen should always make so much noise!" And then she spoke in +Spanish to the custodian of the bells, who is usually to be found in +a little cabin up there within the tower. "He says that they went up +shouting like demons," continued Maria; and it seemed to me that she +looked as though I ought to be ashamed of the name of an Englishman. +"They may not be so solemn in their demeanour as Spaniards," I +answered; "but, for all that, there may be quite as much in them." + +We then again began to mount, and before we had ascended much farther +we passed my three countrymen. They were young men, with gray coats +and gray trousers, with slouched hats, and without gloves. They had +fair faces and fair hair, and swung big sticks in their hands, with +crooked handles. They laughed and talked loud, and, when we met +them, seemed to be racing with each other; but nevertheless they were +gentlemen. No one who knows by sight what an English gentleman is, +could have doubted that; but I did acknowledge to myself that they +should have remembered that the edifice they were treading was a +church, and that the silence they were invading was the cherished +property of a courteous people. + +"They are all just the same as big boys," said Maria. The colour +instantly flew into my face, and I felt that it was my duty to speak +up for my own countrymen. The word "boys" especially wounded my +ears. It was as a boy that she treated me; but, on looking at that +befringed young Spanish Don--who was not, apparently, my elder in +age--she had recognised a man. However, I said nothing further till +I reached the summit. One cannot speak with manly dignity while one +is out of breath on a staircase. + +"There, John," she said, stretching her hands away over the fair +plain of the Guadalquivir, as soon as we stood against the parapet; +"is not that lovely?" + +I would not deign to notice this. "Maria," I said, "I think that you +are too hard upon my countrymen?" + +"Too hard! no; for I love them. They are so good and industrious; +and come home to their wives, and take care of their children. But +why do they make themselves so--so--what the French call gauche?" + +"Good and industrious, and come home to their wives!" thought I. "I +believe you hardly understand us as yet," I answered. "Our domestic +virtues are not always so very prominent; but, I believe, we know how +to conduct ourselves as gentlemen: at any rate, as well as +Spaniards." I was very angry--not at the faults, but at the good +qualities imputed to us. + +"In affairs of business, yes," said Maria, with a look of firm +confidence in her own opinion--that look of confidence which she has +never lost, and I pray that she may never lose it while I remain with +her--"but in the little intercourses of the world, no! A Spaniard +never forgets what is personally due either to himself or his +neighbours. If he is eating an onion, he eats it as an onion should +be eaten." + +"In such matters as that he is very grand, no doubt," said I, +angrily. + +"And why should you not eat an onion properly, John? Now, I heard a +story yesterday from Don--about two Englishmen, which annoyed me very +much." I did not exactly catch the name of the Don in question but I +felt through every nerve in my body that it was the man who had been +talking to her on the plaza. + +"And what have they done?" said I. "But it is the same everywhere. +We are always abused; but, nevertheless, no people are so welcome. +At any rate, we pay for the mischief we do." I was angry with myself +the moment the words were out of my mouth, for, after all, there is +no feeling more mean than that pocket-confidence with which an +Englishman sometimes swaggers. + +"There was no mischief done in this case," she answered. "It was +simply that two men have made themselves ridiculous for ever. The +story is all about Seville, and, of course, it annoys me that they +should be Englishmen." + +"And what did they do?" + +"The Marquis D'Almavivas was coming up to Seville in the boat, and +they behaved to him in the most outrageous manner. He is here now +and is going to give a series of fetes. Of course he will not ask a +single Englishman." + +"We shall manage to live even though the Marquis D'Almavivas may +frown upon us," said I, proudly. + +"He is the richest, and also the best of our noblemen," continued +Maria; "and I never heard of anything so absurd as what they did to +him. It made me blush when Don -- told me." Don Tomas, I thought +she said. + +"If he be the best of your noblemen, how comes it that he is angry +because he has met two vulgar men? It is not to be supposed that +every Englishman is a gentleman." + +"Angry! Oh, no! he was not angry; he enjoyed the joke too much for +that. He got completely the best of them, though they did not know +it; poor fools! How would your Lord John Russell behave if two +Spaniards in an English railway carriage were to pull him about and +tear his clothes?" + +"He would give them in charge to a policeman, of course," said I, +speaking of such a matter with the contempt it deserved. + +"If that were done here your ambassador would be demanding national +explanations. But Almavivas did much better;--he laughed at them +without letting them know it." + +"But do you mean that they took hold of him violently, without any +provocation? They must have been drunk." + +"Oh, no, they were sober enough. I did not see it, so I do not quite +know exactly how it was, but I understand that they committed +themselves most absurdly, absolutely took hold of his coat and tore +it, and--; but they did such ridiculous things that I cannot tell +you." And yet Don Tomas, if that was the man's name, had been able +to tell her, and she had been able to listen to him. + +"'What made them take hold of the marquis?" said I. + +"Curiosity, I suppose," she answered. "He dresses somewhat +fancifully, and they could not understand that any one should wear +garments different from their own." But even then the blow did not +strike home upon me. + +"Is it not pretty to look down upon the quiet town?" she said, coming +close up to me, so that the skirt of her dress pressed me, and her +elbow touched my arm. Now was the moment I should have asked her how +her heart stood towards me; but I was sore and uncomfortable, and my +destiny was before me. She was willing enough to let these English +faults pass without further notice, but I would not allow the subject +I drop. + +"I will find out who these men were," said I, "and learn the truth of +it. When did it occur?" + +"Last Thursday, I think he said." + +"Why, that was the day we came up in the boat, Johnson and myself. +There was no marquis there then, and we were the only Englishmen on +board." + +"It was on Thursday, certainly, because it was well known in Seville +that he arrived on that day. You must have remarked him because he +talks English perfectly--though by-the-bye, these men would go on +chattering before him about himself as though it were impossible that +a Spaniard should know their language. They are ignorant of Spanish, +and they cannot bring themselves to believe that any one should be +better educated than themselves." + +Now the blow had fallen, and I straightway appreciated the necessity +of returning immediately to Clapham where my family resided, and +giving up for ever all idea of Spanish connections. I had resolved +to assert the full strength of my manhood on that tower, and now +words had been spoken which left me weak as a child. I felt that I +was shivering, and did not dare to pronounce the truth which must be +made known. As to speaking of love, and signifying my pleasure that +Don Tomas should for the future be kept at a distance, any such +effort was quite beyond me. Had Don Tomas been there, he might have +walked off with her from before my face without a struggle on my +part. "Now I remember about it," she continued, "I think he must +have been in the boat on Thursday." + +"And now that I remember," I replied, turning away to hide my +embarrassment, "he was there. Your friend down below in the plaza +seems to have made out a grand story. No doubt he is not fond of the +English. There was such a man there, and I did take hold--" + +"Oh, John, was it you?" + +"Yes, Donna Maria, it was I; and if Lord John Russell were to dress +himself in the same way--" But I had no time to complete my +description of what might occur under so extravagantly impossible a +combination of circumstances, for as I was yet speaking, the little +door leading out on to the leads of the tower was opened and my +friend, the mayo of the boat, still bearing gewgaws on his back, +stepped up on to the platform. My eye instantly perceived that the +one pendule was still missing from his jacket. He did not come +alone, but three other gentlemen followed him, who, however, had no +peculiarities in their dress. He saw me at once and bowed and +smiled; and then observing Donna Maria, he lifted his cap from his +head, and addressing himself to her in Spanish, began to converse +with her as though she were an old friend. + +"Senor," said Maria, after the first words of greeting had been +spoken between them; "you must permit me to present to you my +father's most particular friend, and my own,--Mr. Pomfret; John, this +is the Marquis D'Almavivas." + +I cannot now describe the grace with which this introduction was +effected, or the beauty of her face as she uttered the word. There +was a boldness about her as though she had said, "I know it all--the +whole story. But, in spite of that you must take him on my +representation, and be gracious to him in spite of what he has done. +You must be content to do that; or in quarrelling with him you must +quarrel with me also." And it was done at the spur of the moment-- +without delay. She, who not five minutes since had been loudly +condemning the unknown Englishman for his rudeness, had already +pardoned him, now that he was known to be her friend; and had +determined that he should be pardoned by others also or that she +would share his disgrace. I recognised the nobleness of this at the +moment; but, nevertheless, I was so sore that I would almost have +preferred that she should have disowned me. + +The marquis immediately lifted his cap with his left hand while he +gave me his right. "I have already had the pleasure of meeting this +gentleman," he said; "we had some conversation in the boat together." + +"Yes," said I, pointing to his rent, "and you still bear the marks of +our encounter." + +"Was it not delightful, Donna Maria," he continued, turning to her; +"your friend's friend took me for a torero?" + +"And it served you properly, senor," said Donna Maria, laughing, "you +have no right to go about with all those rich ornaments upon you." + +"Oh! quite properly; indeed, I make no complaint; and I must beg your +friend to understand, and his friend also, how grateful I am for +their solicitude as to my pecuniary welfare. They were inclined to +be severe on me for being so extravagant in such trifles. I was +obliged to explain that I had no wife at home kept without her proper +allowance of dresses, in order that I might be gay." + +"They are foreigners, and you should forgive their error," said she. + +"And in token that I do so," said the marquis, "I shall beg your +friend to accept the little ornament which attracted his attention." +And so saying, he pulled the identical button out of his pocket, and +gracefully proffered it to me. + +"I shall carry it about with me always," said I, accepting it, "as a +memento of humiliation. When I look at it, I shall ever remember the +folly of an Englishman and the courtesy of a Spaniard;" and as I made +the speech I could not but reflect whether it might, under any +circumstances, be possible that Lord John Russell should be induced +to give a button off his coat to a Spaniard. + +There were other civil speeches made, and before we left the tower +the marquis had asked me to his parties, and exacted from me an +unwilling promise that I would attend them. "The senora," he said, +bowing again to Maria, "would, he was sure, grace them. She had done +so on the previous year; and as I had accepted his little present I +was bound to acknowledge him as my friend." All this was very +pretty, and of course I said that I would go, but I had not at that +time the slightest intention of doing so. Maria had behaved +admirably; she had covered my confusion, and shown herself not +ashamed to own me, delinquent as I was; but, not the less, had she +expressed her opinion, in language terribly strong, of the +awkwardness of which I had been guilty, and had shown almost an +aversion to my English character. I should leave Seville as quickly +as I could, and should certainly not again put myself in the way of +the Marquis D'Almavivas. Indeed, I dreaded the moment that I should +be first alone with her, and should find myself forced to say +something indicative of my feelings--to hear something also +indicative of her feelings. I had come out this morning resolved to +demand my rights and to exercise them--and now my only wish was to +man away. I hated the marquis, and longed to be alone that I might +cast his button from me. To think that a man should be so ruined by +such a trifle! + +We descended that prodigious flight without a word upon the subject, +and almost without a word at all. She had carried herself well in +the presence of Almavivas, and had been too proud to seem ashamed of +her companion; but now, as I could well see, her feelings of disgust +and contempt had returned. When I begged her not to hurry herself, +she would hardly answer me; and when she did speak, her voice was +constrained and unlike herself. And yet how beautiful she was! +Well, my dream of Spanish love must be over. But I was sure of this; +that having known her, and given her my heart, I could never +afterwards share it with another. + +We came out at last on the dark, gloomy aisle of the cathedral, and +walked together without a word up along the side of the choir, till +we came to the transept. There was not a soul near us, and not a +sound was to be heard but the distant, low pattering of a mass, then +in course of celebration at some far-off chapel in the cathedral. +When we got to the transept Maria turned a little, as though she was +going to the transept door, and then stopped herself. She stood +still; and when I stood also, she made two steps towards me, and put +her hand on my arm. "Oh, John!" she said. + +"'Well," said I; "after all it does not signify. You can make a joke +of it when my back is turned." + +"Dearest John!"--she had never spoken to me in that way before--"you +must not be angry with me. It is better that we should explain to +each other, is it not?" + +"Oh, much better. I am very glad you heard of it at once. I do not +look at it quite in the same light that you do; but nevertheless--" + +"What do you mean? But I know you are angry with me. And yet you +cannot think that I intended those words for you. Of course I know +now that there was nothing rude in what passed." + +"Oh, but there was." + +"No, I am sure there was not. You could not be rude though you are +so free hearted. I see it all now, and so does the marquis. You +will like him so much when you come to know him. Tell me that you +won't be cross with me for what I have said. Sometimes I think that +I have displeased you, and yet my whole wish has been to welcome you +to Seville, and to make you comfortable as an old friend. Promise me +that you will not be cross with me." + +Cross with her! I certainly had no intention of being cross, but I +had begun to think that she would not care what my humour might be. +"Maria," I said, taking hold of her hand. + +"No, John, do not do that. It is in the church, you know." + +"Maria, will you answer me a question?" + +"Yes," she said, very slowly, looking dawn upon the stone slabs +beneath our feet. + +"Do you love me?" + +"Love you!" + +"Yes, do you love me? You were to give me an answer here, in +Seville, and now I ask for it. I have almost taught myself to think +that it is needless to ask; and now this horrid mischance--" + +"What do you mean?" said she, speaking very quickly. + +"Why this miserable blunder about the marquis's button! After that I +suppose--" + +"The marquis! Oh, John, is that to make a difference between you and +me?--a little joke like that?" + +"But does it not?" + +"Make a change between us!--such a thing as that! Oh, John!" + +"But tell me, Maria, what am I to hope? If you will say that you can +love me, I shall care nothing for the marquis. In that case I can +bear to be laughed at." + +"Who will dare to laugh at you? Not the marquis, whom I am sure you +will like." + +"Your friend in this plaza, who told you of all this." + +"What, poor Tomas!" + +"I do not know about his being poor. I mean the gentleman who was +with you last night." + +"Yes, Tomas. You do not know who he is?" + +"Not in the least." + +"How droll! He is your own clerk--partly your own, now that you are +one of the firm. And, John, I mean to make you do something for him; +he is such a good fellow; and last year he married a young girl whom +I love--oh, almost like a sister." + +Do something for him! Of course I would. I promised, then and +there, that I would raise his salary to any conceivable amount that a +Spanish clerk could desire; which promise I have since kept, if not +absolutely to the letter, at any rate, to an extent which has been +considered satisfactory by the gentleman's wife. + +"But, Maria--dearest Maria--" + +"Remember, John, we are in the church; and poor papa will be waiting +breakfast." + +I need hardly continue the story further. It will be known to all +that my love-suit throve in spite of my unfortunate raid on the +button of the Marquis D'Almavivas, at whose series of fetes through +that month I was, I may boast, an honoured guest. I have since that +had the pleasure of entertaining him in my own poor house in England, +and one of our boys bears his Christian name. + +From that day in which I ascended the Giralda to this present day in +which I write, I have never once had occasion to complain of a +deficiency of romance either in Maria Daguilar or in Maria Pomfret. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's John Bull on the Guadalquivir, by Anthony Trollope + diff --git a/old/jbgud10.zip b/old/jbgud10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b33698 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/jbgud10.zip |