she of
a sudden felt something like a hood closing over her head, and,
turning round, she saw behind her the muffled-up man of before, who,
throwing aside his cloak, discovered himself to be the sword-cutler,
Master Palomo, who, without speaking, presented Maria with a little
Venetian mirror, in which she looked and saw herself with her own hair
and garb in such wise that she wondered for a good time if it were not
a dream that the mayoress had shorn her.

The fact was that Master Palomo was a great crony of the old woman
barber, and had seen in her house Maria's tresses on the very same
afternoon of the morning in which he saw Maria was bald, and keeping
silence upon the matter, had wheedled the old woman into keeping
Maria's hair for him, and dressing for the mayoress some other hair of
the same hue which the crone had from a dead woman--a bargain by which
the crafty old dame acquired many a bright crown. And the story
relates that as soon as Maria regained her much lamented and
sighed-for hair by the hands of the gallant sword-cutler, the master
appeared to her much less ugly than before. I do not know if it tells
that from that moment she began to look on him with more favorable
eyes, but i' sooth it is a fact that upon his asking her to accept his
escort to the Moor's house, she gave her assent, and the two set out
hand in hand, the maiden holding her head up free from mufflers. As
they both entered the physician's apartment her father threw himself
into Maria's arms, crying:

"Glory to God, I see thee now, my beloved daughter. How tall and
beautiful thou art grown! Verily, it is worth while to become blind
for five years to see one's daughter matured thus! Now that I see
daylight again, it is only right that I should no longer be a burden
to thee. I shall work for myself, for as for thee it is already time
for thee to marry."

"For this very purpose am I come," broke in at this opportune moment
the silent sword-cutler; "I, as you will have already recognized by
my voice, am your neighbor, Master Palomo. I love Maria, and ask you
for her hand."

"Lack-a-day, master, but your exterior is not very prepossessing.
Howbeit, if Maria doth accept you, I am content."

"I," replied Maria, wholly abashed, and smoothing the false hair
(which then weighed upon her head and heart like a burden of five
hundred weight)--"I, so may God enlighten me, for I durst not venture
to reply."

Palomo took her right hand without s