driver to take them seemed to possess some building or monument
that was of peculiar interest. They did not know that he had
mapped out this ride many times before, and was taking them over
a route which he had already travelled with them in imagination.
King knew what the capital would be like before he entered it,
from his experience of other South American cities, but he acted
as though it were all new to him, and allowed Clay to
explain, and to give the reason for those features of the place
that were unusual and characteristic. Clay noticed this and
appealed to him from time to time, when he was in doubt; but the
other only smiled back and shook his head, as much as to say,
``This is your city; they would rather hear about it from you.''

Clay took them to the principal shops, where the two girls held
whispered consultations over lace mantillas, which they had at
once determined to adopt, and bought the gorgeous paper fans,
covered with brilliant pictures of bull-fighters in suits of
silver tinsel; and from these open stores he led them to a dingy
little shop, where there was old silver and precious hand-painted
fans of mother-of-pearl that had been pawned by families who had
risked and lost all in some revolution; and then to another shop,
where two old maiden ladies made a particularly good guava; and
to tobacconists, where the men bought a few of the native cigars,
which, as they were a monopoly of the Government, were as bad as
Government monopolies always are.

Clay felt a sudden fondness for the city, so grateful was he to
it for entertaining her as it did, and for putting its best front
forward for her delectation. He wanted to thank some one for
building the quaint old convent, with its yellow walls