n her animated. The rude
organization of Marisalada was too vulgar to receive the exquisite
sentiment of admiration. There was in her character too much
indifference and pride to permit her to be taken by surprise. She was
astonished at nothing, interested in nothing. To excite her, be it ever
so little, to soften some part of this hard metal, it was necessary to
employ fire and to use the hammer.

Stein was pale. "My lord Duke," he said, with an air full of sweetness
and of conviction, "is it possible that this diverts you?"

"No," replied the Duke; "it does not divert, it interests me."

During this brief dialogue they had raised up the horse. The poor animal
could not stand on his legs; his intestines protruded and bespattered
the ground. The picador was also raised up; he was removed between the
arms of the chulos. Furious against the bull, and led on by a blind
temerity, he would at all hazards remount his horse and return to the
attack, in spite of the dizziness produced by his fall. It was
impossible to dissuade him; they saw him indeed replace the saddle upon
the poor victim, into the bruised flanks of which he dug his spurs.

"My lord Duke," said Stein, "I may perhaps appear to you ridiculous, but
I do not wish to remain at this spectacle. Maria, shall we depart?"

"No," replied Maria, whose soul seemed to be concentrated in her eyes.
"Am I a little miss? and are you afraid that by accident I may faint?"

"In such case," said Stein, "I will come back and take you when the
course is finished." And he departed.

The bull had disposed of a sufficiently good number of horses. The
unfortunate courser which we have mentioned was taken away--rather drawn
than led by the bridle to the door, by which he made his retreat. The
others, which had not the strength again to stand up, lay stretched out
in the convulsions of agony; sometimes they stretched out their heads as
though impelled by terror. At these last signs of life the bull returned
to the charge, wounding anew with plunges of his horns the bruised
members of his victims. Then, his forehead and horns all bloody, he
walked around the circus affecting an air of provocation and defiance:
at times he proudly raised his head towards the amphitheatre, where the
cries did not cease to be heard; sometimes it was towards the brilliant
chulos who passed before him like meteors, planting their banderillos in
his body. Often from a cage, or from a netting hidden in the