“He’s the man,” he said. “I had forgotten the name; I remember the face. I saw you kill a bull in Cadiz once. I wonder if you remember it? The bull put his head down to charge, and you put your foot between his horns, stepped on his head, ran along his back and jumped down behind.”
“Ah, that happened at Cadiz? No, I don’t remember. The Cadiz audience is the best in Spain, the most intelligent, the most sympathetic; it has the best knowledge of the art. It is not like the Madrid audience, that must sit in judgment and criticise. The American audience is good, especially the Mexican. Yes, the Americans have a real understanding of the art.”
“Have you ever been wounded?” asked Patsy.
“Often; twice badly. Once I spent three months in bed; that was not amusing, I can tell you. The bull’s horn went through my thigh and wrenched the muscles apart. I recovered though. The wound of the bull’s horn is a good wound; one either recovers from it, or dies quickly.”
“Have you any scholars?” asked Patsy.
“No,” sighed the matador. “My art is one that does not allow of disciples. A man cannot be trained to it if he has not the gift. It is an inspiration, like poetry.” He sighed. “It is five years since I retired. It seems twenty-five.”
He was silent a few minutes, looking down as if distressed; then he brushed back his hair with a spirited gesture and glanced again at the picture.
“Most of us end that way,” he confessed. “I have escaped to become an alderman and interest myself in the hygiene of the city that once criticised me!” Then to Villegas: “It was kind of you to ask me to see Pastora Imperio; I have not seen her since she was a child. Her father used to make my professional clothes. They tell me she is a great dancer.”
Villegas had arranged that Imperio should dance for us at the studio. The others had seen her often and were never tired of talking about her.
“Until I saw Imperio dance,” said Patsy, “it was always a mystery to me why Herod had John the Baptist’s head cut off to satisfy the whim of a dancing girl. Now I quite understand it.”