ng that I imagined all the women must fall in love with me! Well,
I implored her to unveil. "Be not importunate," she replied; "I have a
house; let a servant follow me; for though I am of more honourable
condition than this reply of mine would indicate, yet for the sake of
seeing whether your discretion corresponds to your gallant appearance, I
will allow you to see me with less reserve." I kissed her hand for the
favour she granted me, in return for which I promised mountains of gold.
The captain ended his conversation, the ladies went away, and a servant
of mine followed them. The captain told me that what the lady had been
asking of him was to take some letters to Flanders to another captain,
who she said was her cousin, though he knew he was nothing but her
gallant.

For my part I was all on fire for the snow-white hands I had seen, and
dying for a peep at the face; so I presented myself next day at the door
which my servant pointed out to me, and was freely admitted. I found
myself in a house very handsomely decorated and furnished, in presence
of a lady about thirty years of age, whom I recognised by her hands. Her
beauty was not extraordinary, but of a nature well suited to fascinate
in conversation; for she talked with a sweetness of tone that won its
way through the ears to the soul. I had long _tete-a-tetes_ with her, in
which I made love with all my might: I bragged, bounced, swaggered,
offered, promised, and made all the demonstrations I thought necessary
to work myself into her good graces; but as she was accustomed to such
offers and protestations, she listened to them with an attentive, but
apparently far from credulous ear. In short, during the four days I
continued to visit her, our intercourse amounted only to talking soft
nonsense, without my being able to gather the tempting fruit.

In the course of my visits I always found the house free from intruders,
and without a vestige of pretended relations or real gallants. She was
waited on by a girl in whom there was more of the rogue than the
simpleton. At last resolving to push my suit in the style of a soldier,
who is about to shift his quarters, I came to the point with my fair
one, Dona Estefania de Caycedo (for that is the name of my charmer), and
this was the answer she gave me:--"Senor Alferez Campuzano, I should be
a simpleton if I sought to pass myself off on you for a saint; I have
been a sinner, ay, and am one still, but not in a manner to beco