“I obey. Ah! cousin, in the army which you command, I have never committed the fault of insubordination. We have still another stranger in Seville, a Sir John Burnwood. He is a young man of fifty years, somewhat fair, smiling, with hair worthy of the veriest lion of Atlas; an eye-glass unremovable—smile ditto; great talker, hullaballoo, turbulent, full of vivacity, like that German who, for a whim, threw himself out of a window; great lover of jollity, celebrated sportsman, and proprietor of vast coal-mines, which produce him an income of twenty thousand pounds sterling.”
“Twenty thousand pounds of coals, perhaps,” said the general.
“My uncle,” replied Raphael, “resembles the frequenters of the exchange, who cause the funds to rise or fall, according to their caprice. Sir John has bet that he will appear on horseback at the Giralda, and it is the grand motive that has brought him to Seville. He is in despair, because they have not permitted him to take part in this royal pastime. Now he wishes, in imitation of Lord Elgin and Baron Taylor, to purchase Alcazar, and to carry him to his lordly residence.”
“My general,” said the duke, “do you not see that Raphael changes the colors of his tableaux, and that he relates to us only extravagances?”
“There are no extravagances,” replied the general, “that are not possible to the English.”
“You do not yet know the best!” continued Raphael, fixing his looks on a young and handsome person seated beside the marchioness, and noticing her play. “Sir John is in love with my Cousin Rita, and has asked her hand. Rita, who does not at all know how to pronounce the monosyllable yes, replied to him by a dry, hard no.”
“Is it possible, Rita,” said the duke, “you have refused twenty thousand pounds a year?”
“I have not refused the money,” replied the young girl; “I have refused the money’s master.”
“You have done well,” replied the general, “everybody should marry in his own country, it is the way to avoid exposing ourselves to taking a cat for a hare.”
“It was well done,” added the marchioness. “A protestant! God preserve us!”