ee you are smudging it? I am not scolding you, my dear.--I will
show it to you as often as you like, but don't destroy it; let go, you
are injuring it."

"Let him have it," begged my mother, "the boy is not well."

"Of all things to ask!" replied the old maid. "Let him have it! And
who will paint another like this--or make me as I was then? Today
nobody paints miniatures--it is a thing of the past, and I also am a
thing of the past, and I am not what is represented there!"

My eyes dilated with horror; my fingers released their hold on the
picture. I don't know how I was able to articulate:

"You--the portrait--is you?"

"Don't you think I am as pretty now, boy? Bah! one is better looking
at twenty-three than at--than at--I don't know what, for I have
forgotten how old I am!"

My head drooped and I almost fainted again; anyway, my father lifted
me in his arms on to the bed, and made me swallow some tablespoonfuls
of port.

I recovered very quickly, and never wished to enter my aunt's room
again.

AN ANDALUSIAN DUEL

Serafin Estebanez Calderon

Through the little square of St. Anna, towards a certain tavern, where
the best wine is to be quaffed in Seville, there walked in measured
steps two men whose demeanor clearly manifested the soil which gave
them birth. He who walked in the middle of the street, taller than the
other by about a finger's length, sported with affected carelessness
the wide, slouched hat of Ecija, with tassels of glass beads and a
ribbon as black as his sins. He wore his cloak gathered under his left
arm; the right, emerging from a turquoise lining, exposed the merino
lambskin with silver clasps. The herdsman's boots--white, with Turkish
buttons,--the breeches gleaming red from below the cloak and covering
the knee, and, above all, his strong and robust appearance, dark curly
hair, and eye like a red-hot coal, proclaimed at a distance that all
this combination belonged to one of those men who put an end to horses
between their knees and tire out the bull with their lance.

He walked on, arguing with his companion, who was rather spare than
prodigal in his person, but marvelously lithe and supple. The latter
was shod with low shoes, garters united the stockings to the
light-blue breeches, the waistcoat was cane-colored, his sash light
green, and jaunty shoulder-knots, lappets, and rows of buttons
ornamented the carmelite jacket. The open cloak, the hat drawn over
his ear, his sho