ur of the new-comers; but as Pilar raised her
girlish voice to give a peculiar call, I saw a dark form in the distance
separate itself from a group. Then a brown, lean-flanked bull, nobly armed
with horns grand as the antlers of a stag, bounded away from his
companions, and rushed in so straight a line towards Pilar, that in spite
of the Cherub's words, my heart was wrenched.

But I need not have feared. While the young herdsman and Dick stood by
passive and admiring, this _toro bravo_ of famous fighting breed reduced
his run to a canter, and trotted up to Pilar as tamely as if he had been a
belled _cabestro_.

The girl, opening a large knotted handkerchief which she had brought
filled with sweet biscuit, took a step or two forward to meet the bull.
Nestling against his huge head, powerful enough to bear up a horse and
rider impaled upon his horns, she calmly fed the great beast from her
store. Never could there have been a more beautiful picture since the day
when another bull submitted to the caresses of Europa.

Vivillo scarcely deigned to look at Dick, who made some bids for his
favour. All his chivalrous soul of _toro bravo_ was absorbed in pleasure
at Pilar's return, gratitude for her remembrance of him. I would scarcely
have believed that it could be real, had I not seen it.

For ten minutes she stayed, Dick close at her side, always ignored by the
bull; then she returned and walked towards us, slowly, the herdsman
keeping near and Vivillo marching after in a resolute way which would have
turned grey the hair of a nervous man or woman.

But if Dick were conscious of his nerves in such an unusual situation, he
did not show it. His head was bent over Pilar's, talking earnestly, and
though she never looked up at him in answer, once she broke out laughing,
so merrily, I wondered what he had said.

In our own meadow again, safely delivered from the bulls, Pilar slipped
instantly to her father's side and began chattering about Vivillo, who
stood by the ditch looking wistfully after her as he chewed his last
biscuit. Dick and I were thus thrown together; and though Dick's face is
no tell-tale, I guessed somehow that his mind was not as calm as his
features.

"I should think that might have been a little upsetting to an amateur," I
said.

"Maybe," answered Dick, absent-mindedly. "But it isn't that, if I'm
looking queer. Say Ramon, I've done it."

"What?"

"Proposed to a girl for the first time in my life. Wha