with you last night."

"Yes, Tomas. You do not know who he is?"

"Not in the least."

"How droll! He is your own clerk--partly your own, now that you are
one of the firm. And, John, I mean to make you do something for him;
he is such a good fellow; and last year he married a young girl whom
I love--oh, almost like a sister."

Do something for him! Of course I would. I promised, then and
there, that I would raise his salary to any conceivable amount that a
Spanish clerk could desire; which promise I have since kept, if not
absolutely to the letter, at any rate, to an extent which has been
considered satisfactory by the gentleman's wife.

"But, Maria--dearest Maria--"

"Remember, John, we are in the church; and poor papa will be waiting
breakfast."

I need hardly continue the story further. It will be known to all
that my love-suit throve in spite of my unfortunate raid on the
button of the Marquis D'Almavivas, at whose series of fetes through
that month I was, I may boast, an honoured guest. I have since that
had the pleasure of entertaining him in my own poor house in England,
and one of our boys bears his Christian name.

From that day in which I ascended the Giralda to this present day in