gracefully proffered it to me.

"I shall carry it about with me always," said I, accepting it, "as a
memento of humiliation. When I look at it, I shall ever remember the
folly of an Englishman and the courtesy of a Spaniard;" and as I made
the speech I could not but reflect whether it might, under any
circumstances, be possible that Lord John Russell should be induced
to give a button off his coat to a Spaniard.

There were other civil speeches made, and before we left the tower
the marquis had asked me to his parties, and exacted from me an
unwilling promise that I would attend them. "The senora," he said,
bowing again to Maria, "would, he was sure, grace them. She had done
so on the previous year; and as I had accepted his little present I
was bound to acknowledge him as my friend." All this was very
pretty, and of course I said that I would go, but I had not at that
time the slightest intention of doing so. Maria had behaved
admirably; she had covered my confusion, and shown herself not
ashamed to own me, delinquent as I was; but, not the less, had she
expressed her opinion, in language terribly strong, of the
awkwardness of which I had been guilty, and had shown almost an
aversion to my English character. I should leave Seville as quickly
as I could, and should certainly not again put myself in the way of
the Marquis D'Almavivas. Indeed, I dreaded the moment that I should
be first alone with her, and should find myself forced to say
something indicative of my feelings--to hear something also
indicative of her feelings. I had come out this morning resolved to
demand my rights and to exercise them--and now my only wish was to
man away. I hated the marquis, and longed to be alone that I might
cast his button from me. To think that a man should be so ruined by