f
her deserts. She was dressed in a green bodice and petticoat, trimmed
with the same colour. A collar embroidered with black silk set off the
alabaster whiteness of her neck. The thick tresses of her bright
chestnut hair were bound up with white ribbon; she had pendents in her
ears which seemed to be pearls, but were only glass; her girdle was a
St. Francis cord, and a large bunch of keys hung at her side. When she
came out of the room she crossed herself, and made a profound reverence
with great devotion to an image of our Lady, that hung on one of the
walls of the quadrangle. Then looking up and seeing the two young men
intently gazing on her, she immediately retired again into the room, and
called thence to Argueello to get up.

Carriazo, it must be owned, was much struck by Costanza's beauty; he
admired it as much as his companion, only he did not fall in love with
her; on the contrary, he had no desire to spend another night in the
inn, but to set out at once for the fisheries.

La Argueello presently appeared in the gallery with two young women,
natives of Gallicia, who were also servants in the inn; for the number
employed in the Sevillano was considerable, that being one of the best
and most frequented houses of its kind in Toledo. At the same time the
servants of the persons lodging in the inn began to assemble to receive
oats for their masters' beasts; and the host dealt them out, all the
while grumbling and swearing at his maid-servants who had been the cause
of his losing the services of a capital hostler, who did the work so
well and kept such good reckoning, that he did not think he had ever
lost the price of a grain of oats by him. Avendano, who heard all this,
seized the opportunity at once. "Don't fatigue yourself, senor host," he
said; "give me the account-book, and whilst I remain here I will give
out the oats, and keep such an exact account of it that you will not
miss the hostler who you say has left you."

"Truly I thank you for the offer, my lad," said the host, "for I have no
time to attend to this business; I have too much to do, both indoors
and out of doors. Come down and I will give you the book; and mind ye,
these muleteers are the very devil, and will do you out of a peck of
oats under your very nose, with no more conscience than if it was so
much chaff."

Avendano went down to the quadrangle, took the book, and began to serve
out pecks of oats like water, and to note them down with su