she is to flitting about the world, do you think she'll be able to stand
this place?"

"Nobody can tell," don Andrés replied. "Not even Cupido can find that
out. She'll stay until she gets bored, he says. And to be in less danger
of that, she has brought her whole establishment along on her back, like
a snail."

"Well, she'll be bored soon enough," one of Rafael's friends observed.
"I suppose she thinks she's going to be admired and stared at as she was
abroad! Moreno's girl! Did you ever hear of such a family?... Daughter
of that _descamisado_, as my father calls him because he died without a
stitch on his back! And all people say of them! Last night her arrival
was the subject of conversation in every decent home in town, and there
wasn't a man who did not promise to fight shy of her. If she thinks
Alcira is anything like the places where they dance the razzle-dazzle
and there's no shame, she'll be sadly disappointed."

Don Andrés laughed slyly.

"Yes, boys! She'll be disappointed. There's a plenty of morality in this
town, and much wholesome fear of scandal. We're probably as bad as
people in other places, but we don't want anybody to find us out. I'm
afraid this Leonora is going to spend most of her time with her aunt--a
silly old thing, whatever her many virtues may be. They say she's
brought a French maid along.... But she's beginning to cry 'sour grapes'
already. Do you know what she said to Cupido yesterday? That she had
come here with the idea of living all by herself, just to get away from
people; and when the barber spoke to her of society in Alcira, she made
a wry face, as much as to say the place was filled with no-accounts.