this sad predicament.

"In what way," conjectured she inwardly, "in what way can I raise five
hundred _maravedis_ to be quits with the Moor who will give back his
sight to my poor old father? All! I have it. I am a pretty maid, and
suitors innumerable, commoners and nobles, pay their addresses and
compliments to me. But all are trifling youths who only care for
love-making and who seek light o' loves rather than spouses according
to the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember, notwithstanding, that
opposite our house lives the sword-cutler, Master Palomo, who is
always looking at me and never speaks to me, and the Virgin assist me,
he appears a man of very good condition for a husband; but what
maiden, unless she were cross-eyed, or hunch-backed, could like a man
with such a flat nose, with that skin the color of a ripe date, with
those eyes like a dead calf's, and with those huge hands, which are
more like the paws of a wild beast that the belongings of a person who
with them should softly caress the woman whom Destiny bestows upon him
for a companion? 'Tis said that he is no drunkard, nor cudgeler, nor
dallier with women, nor a liar, and that he is besides possessed of
much property and very rich. Pity 'tis that one who is so ugly and
stiff-necked should unite such parts."

Thus turning the matter over and over in her mind, Maria together
with Juan reached their home, where was awaiting them an esquire in a
long mourning robe, who told Maria that the aunt of the mayor of the
city had died in an honest estate and in the flower of her age, for
she had not yet completed her seventy years, and that the obsequies of
this sexagenarian damsel were to be performed the following day, on
which occasion her coffin would be carried to the church by maidens,
and he was come to ask Maria if she would please to be one of the