g. After having spent two days in fruitless
wanderings, and having found out nothing either as to _La Rollona_ or
as to Carmen, I was thinking I would go back to my comrades as soon as I
had made a few purchases, when, toward sunset, as I was walking along a
street, I heard a woman's voice from a window say, 'Orange-seller!'

* To the galleys, or else to all the devils in hell.

"I looked up, and on a balcony I saw Carmen looking out, beside a
scarlet-coated officer with gold epaulettes, curly hair, and all
the appearance of a rich _milord_. As for her, she was magnificently
dressed, a shawl hung on her shoulders, she'd a gold comb in her hair,
everything she wore was of silk; and the cunning little wretch, not a
bit altered, was laughing till she held her sides.

"The Englishman shouted to me in mangled Spanish to come upstairs, as
the lady wanted some oranges, and Carmen said to me in Basque:

"'Come up, and don't look astonished at anything!'

"Indeed, nothing that she did ought ever to have astonished me. I don't
know whether I was most happy or wretched at seeing her again. At the
door of the house there was a tall English servant with a powdered head,
who ushered me into a splendid drawing-room. Instantly Carmen said to me
in Basque, 'You don't know one word of Spanish, and you don't know me.'
Then turning to the Englishman, she added:

"'I told you so. I saw at once he was a Basque. Now you'll hear what a
queer language he speaks. Doesn't he look silly? He's like a cat that's
been caught in the larder!'

"'And you,' said I to her in my own language, 'you look like an impudent
jade--and I've a good mind to scar your face here and now, before your
spark.'

"'My spark!' said she. 'Why, you've guessed that all alone! Are you
jealous of this idiot? You're even sillier than you were before our
evening in the _Calle del Candilejo_! Don't you see, fool, that at this
moment I'm doing gipsy business, and doing it in the most brilliant
manner? This house belongs to me--the guineas of that crayfish will
belong to me! I lead him by the nose, and I'll lead him to a place that
he'll never get out of!'

"'And if I catch you doing any gipsy business in this style again, I'll
see to it that you never do any again!' said I.

"'Ah! upon my word! Are you my _rom_, pray that you give me orders? If
_El Tuerto_ is pleased, what have you to do with it? Oughtn't you to
be very happy that you are the only man who can call h