a entertained for her mistress,
and, seeing her so much in love and in such desperate case, she could do
no less than seek a remedy for her ills. The consent she had succeeded
in obtaining from Don Luis to her request that he should pay a visit to
Pepita was an unexpected triumph; and, in order to derive the greatest
possible advantage from this triumph, she was obliged to make the most
of her time, and to use all her worldly wisdom in preparing for the
occasion.

Antonona had suggested ten as the hour of Don Luis's visit, because this
was the hour in which Don Luis and Pepita had been accustomed to see
each other in the now abolished or suspended gatherings at the house of
the later. She had suggested this hour also in order to avoid giving
rise to scandal or slander; for she had once heard a preacher say that,
according to the gospel, there is nothing so wicked as scandal, and that
the scandal-monger ought to be flung into the sea with a mill-stone hung
round his neck.

Antonona, then, returned to the house of her mistress, very well
satisfied with herself and with the firm determination so to arrange
matters that the remedy she had sought should not prove useless, or
aggravate instead of curing Pepita's malady. She resolved to say nothing
of the matter to Pepita herself until the last moment, when she would
tell her that Don Luis had asked her of his own accord at what hour he
might make a farewell visit, and that she had said ten.

In order to avoid giving rise to talk, she determined that Don Luis
should not be seen to enter the house, and for this the hour and the
internal arrangement of the house itself were alike propitious. At ten
the street would be full of people, on account of the vigil, which would
make it easier for Don Luis to reach the house without being observed.
To enter the hall would be the work of a moment, and Antonona, who would
be waiting for him, could then take him to the library without any one
seeing him.

All, or at least the greater part, of the handsome country-houses of
Andalusia are in construction double rather than single houses. Each
house, of these double houses, has its own door. The principal door
leads to the court-yard, which is pared and surrounded by columns, to
the parlors and the other apartments of the family; the other to the
inner yards, the stable and coach-house, the kitchens, the mill, the
wine-press, the granaries, the buildings where are kept the oil, the
must,