ice from behind the curtain.

"My Lord Duke," says Etienne in a master-of-ceremonies' voice, "so long
as I am permitted daily to gaze upon the beauty of your incomparable
wife, how can this heart turn from that to the admiration of any meaner
object?"

"What nonsense is he talking now?" asks Concha, returning demurely. "I
know at least three girls of this city of Valencia who have the best
reasons for expecting M. de Saint Pierre to make proposals for the
honour of their hands. But what can you expect of such a wretch?"

"Well, Master Etienne," says Rollo, "you will now have a chance to
forget Mistress Concha and make some fair Castilian happy. For I must
send you immediately with these despatches to Madrid. You will stay a
week and return with the answers. That will give such a lady-killer
ample time to bring matters to a head with the most hard-hearted of the
senoritas of the capital."

"Ah," sighs Etienne, kissing a hand to Concha, as he prepares to take
his leave, "your husband wrongs me. He who hath so much, misjudges me
who have so little! Truly, I shall be soon able to say, turning about
the old catch:

"'_My soul is in Valencia,
My body is in Madrid!_'"

"Well, John, this is great seeing," said Rollo, when Etienne had
departed to busy himself about horses and an escort; "what in the world
has brought you hither? Surely your father cannot want you to make
another thousand pounds in order that you may have the right to attend
his twirling spindles from 8.30 every morning to 5.30 every night?"

"Oh, I am a partner now," Mortimer answered, "even though the old boy
insisted upon pocketing every penny of the profit on the Abbot's
_Priorato_. Strict man of business, my father! He said it would teach me
in the future to be spry about getting my goods shipped. And when I
explained, he only said that what had been possible for him there in
England, sitting at ease in his arm-chair, ought to have been possible
for me on the spot and with money in my pocket!"

"And what did you do?" asked Rollo, smiling.

"Well, at any rate, I struck him for a commission on my having secured
the order, and the Convent onions were good for the rest. So now I am a
partner in the firm with a good quarter interest."

"And what are you doing here? More onions?" laughed his friend.

John blushed and looked down at the carpet. They had a carpet at the
Governor's house--though in her heart Concha always wants to have it up
whe