-sailed fishing-boats that dotted the bay. With clever,
unobtrusive tact she made herself my eyes. Into her talk she infused
the tale of the quick and the still things we passed in our stroll,
never entering into pointed descriptions, but rather mentioning them in
her chat as though they were of interest to herself alone.

And afterwards, in the evening, she was kind enough to come to a box I
had secured at the opera-house--a building which is almost equal to La
Scala--and I had the delight of _seeing_ Balfe's "The Talisman"
acted, as well as of listening to the music.

She was a woman of perfect self-reliance. She had seen men and women
and places. She knew well how the restrictions of society were ruled,
but she was quite capable of mapping out her own line of conduct to
suit her own ideas. At least I deduced as much, though we exchanged no
single word upon the subject. There had arisen between us a
_camaraderie_ that for me was delightful. Sadi was good, but his
companionship had its limits. She was all Sadi was, and more. It would
be a poor compliment to say she was everything a male comrade could be.
She was woman through it all. She was thoughtful, bright, amusing,
resourceful.

Yet we never verged beyond the bounds of mere _camaraderie_, nor
do I think that either of us wished to do so.

CHAPTER XVI.

CRUELLY INTERRUPTED.

For the life of me I cannot say now who proposed it. I think the scheme
must have been evolved spontaneously between us. But the fact remains
that next morning saw Mrs. Cromwell and myself driving out through the
city _puerto_ by the railway station and the _Plaza de Toros_, and out
along the level road across the plain, towards the hills that skirt it.
She knew the island thoroughly--knew every inch of it, one might
say--and understood and appreciated the people of all grades. I could
not have found anywhere a more interesting companion.

The old Mallorcan nobility, the oldest in Europe, are but little in
evidence. They stay indoors, and outside their old palaces one hears
little about them. Even in Palma, where times change but slowly, times
have changed for them. They are woefully hard up--the result of heavy
gambling in a past generation, and the depreciation of land in this.
Indeed, with one exception, all classes down to the peasants are poor;
but they are not unhappy. It would be impossible to find a race more
contented with their lot. There is no absolute poverty. Bean p