There they are, one at least in every group, and you have to walk, as the
Spaniards say, with your beard over your shoulder, continually looking
back at those who have passed. The only antidote known is to get married
before you visit the place, and doubts have been expressed as to its
efficacy. In the south-coast Seville there is nothing done but
heart-breaking; it is so common it is like hammering flints for road
mending; nobody cares if your heart is in pieces. They break hearts on
horseback, and while walking, playing tennis, shopping--actually at
shopping, not to mention parties of every kind. No one knows where the
next danger will be encountered--at the very next corner perhaps.
Feminine garments have an irresistible flutter in the sea-breeze;
feathers have a beckoning motion. No one can be altogether good in
Brighton, and that is the great charm of it. The language of the eyes is
cultivated to a marvellous degree; as we say of dogs, they quite talk
with their eyes. Even when you do not chance to meet an exceptional
beauty, still the plainer women are not plain like the plain women in
other places. The average is higher among them, and they are not so
irredeemably uninteresting. The flash of an eye, the shape of a shoulder,
the colour of the hair--something or other pleases. Women without a
single good feature are often good-looking in New Seville because of an
indescribable style or manner. They catch the charm of the good-looking
by living among them, so that if any young lady desires to acquire the
art of attraction she has only to take train and join them. Delighted
with our protectorate of Paphos, Venus has lately decided to reside on
these shores, Every morning the girls' schools go for their
constitutional walks; there seem no end of these schools--the place has
a garrison of girls, and the same thing is noticeable in their ranks. Too
young to have developed actual loveliness, some in each band distinctly
promise future success. After long residence the people become accustomed
to good looks, and do not see anything especial around them, but on going