“Is the snow always there?” J. asked, pointing to the Sierra Nevada.
“I was born in the tower,” said Maria; “I have lived here all my life, and I have never seen those mountains without snow. That is the campana de la Vela,” she pointed to a huge bronze bell hanging in the turret. “You should see the tower on the day after New Year. How many girls come up to see the view that day! They believe, foolish ones, that she who rings the bell on the second of January will get a husband before the year is over.” Maria smiled, with grim close-shut lips. Had she ever been weak enough to try the charm? For Encarnacion it was unthinkable.
“When Don Alfonzo was here we asked him to ring the bell. Though he laughed very much, he would not. From what we hear, he will be married before New Year all the same.”
In the Torre de la Vela they know all that is going on. It was growing dark; the stars were pricking through the blue; down in the city of Granada the lights seemed to reflect them.
“Is that the Gypsy quarter?” I asked Maria. I could just make out doors like the one leading to Aladdin’s cave, in the face of a hillside far below.
“Yes, that is the Albaicin. You have been there?”
“Not yet; to-morrow we shall go to see some Gypsy dancing.”
Maria shrugged scornful shoulders. “Take care they don’t pick your pockets. The Gitanos are great thieves; they are taught to steal from the time they are babies. You may like what you will see. When there are no ladies,” she held up her hands in horror, “their dances are not to be imagined or described. Do not let him go by himself.” She looked at Patsy, leaning over the parapet absorbed in the view. “They are deceitful hussies! The dances they dance when men go alone are very different from what you will see!”
“That would be a hot walk without the shade of those trees,” said Patsy. “Pleasant that we should remember the Iron Duke in Spain most of all for his elms. Who loves his fellow men, plants trees. The English are civilized, confound ’em! The longer you’re in Europe, the more you have to think of England as the Great Friend.”
There was no excuse to linger longer. The sisters had invited us to sup, and we had declined.