pport life. But the house is a fine old
place, and stands at a great height among the hills, and most
salubriously; and I had no sooner heard my friend's tale than I
remembered you. I told him I had a wounded officer, wounded in the good
cause, who was now able to make a change; and I proposed that his
friends should take you for a lodger. Instantly the Padre's face grew
dark, as I had maliciously foreseen it would. It was out of the
question, he said. Then let them starve, said I, for I have no sympathy
with tatterdemalion pride. Thereupon we separated, not very content with
one another; but yesterday, to my wonder, the Padre returned and made a
submission: the difficulty, he said, he had found upon inquiry to be
less than he had feared; or, in other words, these proud people had put
their pride in their pocket. I closed with the offer; and, subject to
your approval, I have taken rooms for you in the residencia. The air of
these mountains will renew your blood; and the quiet in which you will
there live is worth all the medicines in the world."

"Doctor," said I, "you have been throughout my good angel, and your
advice is a command. But tell me, if you please, something of the family
with which I am to reside."

"I am coming to that," replied my friend; "and, indeed, there is a
difficulty in the way. These beggars are, as I have said, of very high
descent, and swollen with the most baseless vanity; they have lived for
some generations in a growing isolation, drawing away, on either hand,
from the rich who had now become too high for them, and from the poor,
whom they still regarded as too low; and even to-day, when poverty
forces them to unfasten their door to a guest, they cannot do so without
a most ungracious stipulation. You are to remain, they say, a stranger;
they will give you attendance, but they refuse from the first the idea
of the smallest intimacy."

I will not deny that I was piqued, and perhaps the feeling strengthened
my desire to go, for I was confident that I could break down that
barrier if I desired. "There is nothing offensive in such a
stipulation," said I; "and I even sympathise with the feeling that
inspired it."

"It is true they have never seen you," returned the doctor politely;
"and if they knew you were the handsomest and the most pleasant man that
ever came from England (where I am told that handsome men are common,
but pleasant ones not so much so), they would doubtless make you welcom