"Pshaw!" said Seaton, "an abogado; in other words, a rogue. Astuto? ah, he is well named; that is Spanish for craft or chicanery, of which he has as much, I believe, as any Edinburgh W.S."
"Donna Elvira Moro, Calle Mayor. Any scandal about her, Seaton?"
"Plenty, and to spare. The town is full of strange stories about her and her escudero, or gentleman-usher, an office to which she suddenly raised him from being a moco de mulas.[*] His goodly proportions pleased the eye of the widow."
[*] A mule-driver.
"Scandal again! The Duke of Alba de T—— and his two daughters,—Donna Olivia and Donna Virginia."
"Three separate cards must be sent to them," said Stuart, inditing them while he spoke.
"The duke is supposed to be a traitor, and in the French interest."
"I assure you, Seaton, his daughters are not," replied Ronald, writing the while. "They are very beautiful girls, and Lisle is a lucky dog to have his billet in the palace of De T——. He is continually with them, either among the gardens, riding on the Prado, or flirting at home, I believe. The young senoras are never to be seen, either at church or la Posada de los Representes, without their most faithful cavalier and escudero, the Honourable Louis Lisle."
"The mess get very little of his company just now. He never appears among us but at parade; and when the word "dismiss" is given, he vanishes like a ghost at cock-crow. I wonder what the Duke thinks of the matter?"
"I believe, Alister, he never thinks of it at all," replied Seaton. "He is too proud to hold communication with any one, and sits in his library smoking Guadalaxara cigars and drinking sherry from dawn till sunset, keeping every one at an awful distance."