“Alone, sad, and unhappy,” I replied, “I felt that abstinence was the best thing for me.”
“You look downcast.”
“You alone can make me look cheerful.”
Here my barber came in, and she left me. I then went to mass at the Church of the Good Success, where I saw all the handsome courtezans in Madrid. I dined with Don Diego, and when his daughter came in with dessert he told her that it was her fault I had gone supperless to bed.
“It shall not happen again,” said she.
“Would you like to come with me to our Lady of Atocha?” said I.
“I should like it very much,” she replied, with a side-glance at her father.
“My girl,” said Don Diego, “true devotion and merriment go together, and the reason is that the truly devout person has trust in God and in the honesty of all men. Thus you can trust in Don Jaime as an honest man, though he has not the good fortune to be born in Spain.”
I could not help laughing at this last sentence, but Don Diego was not offended. Donna Ignazia kissed her father’s hands, and asked if she might bring her cousin too.
“What do you want to take the cousin for?” said Don Diego; “I will answer for Don Jaime.”