e protistin, for I'm only an
agint. So I'd loike yez to be honest wid me, an' I'll be the same wid
you."

"Why, you speak English first-rate--in fact, splendid," said the
delighted Russell. "I never heard a foreigner speak it so well
before."

"Sure an' it's aisy enough," said the chief; "as aisy as dhrinkin',
whin ye have practice. I've got a farm accint, av coorse, but that's
nayther here nor there."

Russell thought that his accent had a little smack of Irish about it,
and wondered whether all Spaniards spoke English like that.

"Ye'll excuse me," said the chief, "if I have to ax you a few
throiflin interrogations for farrum's sake. I'll now begin. What is
your name?"

"Russell."

"Russell--ah! What profession?"

"A gentleman," said Russell, somewhat pompously.

"A gintleman, eh; an' ye live on yer own money?"

"Of course."

"That's right," said the chief, with deep satisfaction. "It's meself
that's the proud man this day to meet wid the loikes avyou that's got
an indepindint fartune, an' can call his sowl his own. An' have yez
been long in Spain, thin?"

"No, only a couple of months."

"Thravellin' for plisure, av coorse," insinuated the chief.

"Yes; I wanted to take a run through the Continent," said Russell, in
a grandiose way, as though the "Continent" was something belonging to
him; "and I'm also bringing home with me a ward of mine--Miss
Westlotorn."

"Ah! an' so the young lady is a ward av yours? I thought she was your
daughter."

"No, she's my ward."

"Is she rich?"

"Well, sir, she's comfortable; she's worth about fifty thousand
pounds sterling. Now I don't call that rich; I only call it
comfortable."

"An' what do yez call rich?" asked the chief, in a tender voice, full
of affectionate interest.

"Well, a couple of hundred thousand pounds or so. You see, when I was
worth fifty thousand I thought I was somebody, but I soon learned how
paltry an amount that is. No, sir; two hundred thousand pounds are
necessary to make a rich man, and not a penny less, sir--not a penny,
sir."

"Thim's me own sintimints intirely," said the chief; "that shuits me,
so it does. I saw by the cut av yez that ye must be a millionnaire at
laste--so I did."

"A millionnaire!" said Russell, with affected modesty. "Well, you
know, in England that's a big word; but I suppose here in Spain, or
anywhere on the Continent, I might be called one."

"I suppose," said the chief, after a pause, "that ye've got