it; besides, there was one in her own country with whom she would
wish to consult. I knew she had no mother; and as for consulting old
Mr. Daguilar on such a subject, that idea, I knew, could not have
troubled her. Besides, as I afterwards learned, Mr. Daguilar had
already proposed the marriage to his partner exactly as he would have
proposed a division of assets. My mother declared that Maria was a
foolish chit--in which by-the-bye she showed her entire ignorance of
Miss Daguilar's character; my eldest sister begged that no constraint
might he put on the young lady's inclinations--which provoked me to
assert that the young lady's inclinations were by no means opposed to
my own; and my father, in the coolest manner suggested that the
matter might stand over for twelve months, and that I might then go
to Seville, and see about it! Stand over for twelve months! Would
not Maria, long before that time, have been snapped up and carried
off by one of those inordinately rich Spanish grandees who are still
to be met with occasionally in Andalucia?

My father's dictum, however, had gone forth; and Maria, in the
calmest voice, protested that she thought it very wise. I should be
less of a boy by that time, she said, smiling on me, but driving
wedges between every fibre of my body as she spoke. "Be it so," I
said, proudly. "At any rate, I am not so much of a boy that I shall
forget you." "And, John, you still have the trade to learn," she
added, with her deliciously foreign intonation--speaking very slowly,
but with perfect pronunciation. The trade to learn! However, I said
not a word, but stalked out of the room, meaning to see her no more
before she went. But I could not resist attending on her in the hall
as she started; and, when she took leave of us, she put her face up
to be kissed by me, as she did by my father, and seemed to receive as
much emotion from one embrace as from the other. "He'll go out by