; inexplicably but wholly Spanish, although Dick was not sure
they did not recall bits of Venice, "just as you turn away from St.
Mark's."

It was odd that shops so small could be so gay and attractive as these
with their rows of painted fans, their draped mantillas, their bright
sashes, foolish little tambourines, castanets tied with rosettes of ribbon
in Spanish colours; their curious and vivid antique jewelry; their
_sombreros cordobeses_ displayed in the same windows with silk hats from
Bond Street; their flaming flowers, Moorish pottery, old lace, and
cabinets of inlaid ebony and silver. And I knew that I should learn to
love the sounds of Seville better than the sounds of London or other
cities I had seen.

Haunting sounds they were, these noises of a closely peopled old town,
characteristic as those of Naples, not so strident as in Madrid; above
all, the sound of bells, ringing, booming, chiming, so continuously that
soon they would affect the senses like a heavy perfume always present. One
would cease to hear them, and be startled only if their clamouring tongues
were silenced.

In the streets, where the processions of _Semana Santa_ would pass,
already hundreds of rush-bottomed chairs were ranged in front of houses
and shops, piled in confusion, which would be reduced to order for
to-morrow, Palm Sunday. Beyond, in the Plaza de la Constitucion--scene in
old days of the bull-fight and _auto-da-fe_,--many men were busy putting
the last touches on the crimson velvet and gold draperies of the royal
box, pounding barriers into place in the tribune in front of the
silver-like chasing of the Casa del Ayuntamiento's Plateresque facade, or
arranging row after row of chairs in the open space opposite, leaving an
aisle for the procession to pass between.

"Now there is something to do before we drive home to the Cortijo de Santa
Rufina," said the Cherub. "I must see about getting a box in the tribune
for the week; I must find out whether Carmona did come in by train last
night. Don Ramon hasn't suggested this plan, but I think he would not
dislike it."

"I meant to drop out of the car, to see what I could learn myself, and
join you afterwards at home," I said. "But you can get hold of things
better than I, a stranger, can."

"You must remain a stranger," he supplemented my words. "If your chauffeur
will stop at the top of this narrow street, I'll walk down it a few doors
to my club, and ask for the latest news. Car