Henry Seton Merriman

“ If one man shoots another we like to see the gun, and we pay sixty centimes to look upon it. There are people who make an honest living by such exhibitions. If they cannot get the gun they put another in its place, and it is all the same. Now, your knife—the one the Señorita sharpens with a kiss—in my country it will have its value. Suppose I buy it; suppose we say five hundred pesetas?”
And Cartoner's voice was the voice of innocence.
There was silence for some time, and at last the knife came up handlewise between the leaves of the hydrangea. Spanish pride is always ready to shut its eyes. ”

“ Cartoner, of the Foreign Office, who is still biding his time, is not tired of Spain yet—and it must be remembered that Cartoner knows the Peninsula. He began to know it twenty years ago, and his knowledge is worthy of the name, inasmuch as it moves with the times. Some day there will be a war in Spain, and we shall fight either for or against the Don, which exercise Englishmen have already enjoyed more than once. Cartoner hopes that it may come in his time, when, as he himself puts it, he will be “there or thereabouts.” ”

“ A queer smile flitted across Cartoner's face. He was a philosopher in his way, and knew that such things must be.
“He was a scoundrel, and had already ruined one poor girl,” went on the voice from the tree. The cheap violin was speaking about good and bad mixed together again—and to talk aloud was safe. “But she was no better than she should be—a tobacco-worker. And tobacco for work or pleasure ever ruins a woman, Señor. Look at Seville. But Juanita is different. She irons the fine linen. She is good—as good as his Excellency's mother—and beautiful. ”