re
to tell her she was a widow.

"When she knew how it had all happened--

"'You'll always be a _lillipendi_,' she said. 'Garcia ought to have
killed you. Your Navarrese guard is a pack of nonsense, and he has sent
far more skilful men than you into the darkness. It was just that his
time had come--and yours will come too.'

"'Ay, and yours too!--if you're not a faithful _romi_ to me.'

"'So be it,' said she. 'I've read in the coffee grounds, more than once,
that you and I were to end our lives together. Pshaw! what must be, will
be!' and she rattled her castanets, as was her way when she wanted to
drive away some worrying thought.

"One runs on when one is talking about one's self. I dare say all these
details bore you, but I shall soon be at the end of my story. Our new
life lasted for some considerable time. _El Dancaire_ and I gathered a
few comrades about us, who were more trustworthy than our earlier ones,
and we turned our attention to smuggling. Occasionally, indeed, I must
confess we stopped travellers on the highways, but never unless we were
at the last extremity, and could not avoid doing so; and besides, we
never ill-treated the travellers, and confined ourselves to taking their
money from them.

"For some months I was very well satisfied with Carmen. She still served
us in our smuggling operations, by giving us notice of any opportunity
of making a good haul. She remained either at Malaga, at Cordova, or at
Granada, but at a word from me she would leave everything, and come to
meet me at some _venta_ or even in our lonely camp. Only once--it was at
Malaga--she caused me some uneasiness. I heard she had fixed her fancy
upon a very rich merchant, with whom she probably proposed to play her
Gibraltar trick over again. In spite of everything _El Dancaire_ said to
stop me, I started off, walked into Malaga in broad daylight, sought for
Carmen and carried her off instantly. We had a sharp altercation.

"'Do you know,' said she, 'now that you're my _rom_ for good and all, I
don't care for you so much as when you were my _minchorro_! I won't be
worried, and above all, I won't be ordered about. I choose to be free to
do as I like. Take care you don't drive me too far; if you tire me
out, I'll find some good fellow who'll serve you just as you served _El
Tuerto_.'

"_El Dancaire_ patched it up between us; but we had said things to each
other that rankled in our hearts, and we were not as we had been before.