ustiness.
In front of the fireplace, if there is any, or else the brazier-table, a
hard yellow or red satin sofa is drawn up, an armchair on each side. All
the rest of the furniture's ranged in a straight row round the wall. It's
in the afternoon, but you wait till the ladies dress, because if they're
in they're sure to be in wrappers, unless it's so late that their carriage
is ready for the _paseo_. After you're nearly gone to sleep, they come,
and you talk of any uninteresting things they can think of; never
interesting ones, because they're kept for intimate friends' gossip; and
the girls simper and stare as if you were a curiosity, because you're
allowed to walk in the street without a maid.' That's being 'sociable' in
Seville, according to the American girl; and I'm afraid that she's right
from a foreigner's point of view."

All this, to amuse us; but unfortunately it was far from amusing to Dick.
He sat looking introspective, and wondering no doubt, if Pilar meant to
hint that, so far as the door of her heart was concerned, foreigners might
save themselves the trouble of knocking.

Seeing him taciturn, as hostess she felt it her duty to console him, so
when luncheon was over an invitation to go and visit Vivillo, the beloved
bull, was delivered to all, with an especially beguiling look at Dick. He
accepted with suspicious alacrity, and to please her I said yes; while the
Cherub, who was evidently longing for a siesta, shrugged his shoulders
dutifully. It seemed that we could see the pasture which was Vivillo's
drawing-room without trespassing upon Carmona's land, on which I should
have been loth to set my foot, even for Pilar; but when, after twenty
minutes' walk across meadows, we arrived at the hedge which divided the
Duke's _ganaderia_ from Colonel O'Donnel's farm, Dick would not be
satisfied with a distant inspection of the grazing bulls. Pilar (denuded
of her mantilla, but still in the black brocade, ready for the afternoon
in Seville) was going to pay a friendly call upon her darling, and Dick
was resolved upon an introduction.

Pilar cried gaily to a herdsman visible in the distance, and joyously
obedient to the girl's evidently familiar voice, the young fellow came
running towards us, _garrocha_ in hand. Between him and the hedge which
separated the two properties, was a deep ditch which no bull, save in a
state of fury, would care to jump. But not far away a long plank lay half
hidden in rich grass, and