“It is partly my fault, Owen,” said the Major, “that you haven’t a joint of mutton instead of this sheep’s head. I ought to have been sharper. The animal was actually sold in parts before he was killed. Old Clutterbuck had secured a haunch, and he a single man, you know—’tis thrown away upon him. I offered him something handsome for his bargain, but he wouldn’t part with it.”
“We’re lucky to get any,” returned Owen. “Never was such a scramble. Old Fiskin, the commissary, and Mrs O’Regan, the Major’s wife, both swore the left leg was knocked down to them; neither would give in, and it was put up again, when the staff doctor, Pursum, who had just arrived in a great hurry, carried it off by bidding eightpence more than either. Not one of the three has spoken to either of the others since; and people say,” added Owen, “Mrs O’Regan avers openly that Fiskin didn’t behave like a gentleman.”
“God knows!” said my grandfather, “’tis a difficult thing in such a case to decide between politeness and a consciousness of being in the right. Fiskin likes a good dinner.”
The dinner having been done justice to, Carlota removed the remains to a side-table, and the Major was in the act of compounding a bowl of punch, when there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” cried Carlota.
A light and timid step crossed the narrow passage separating the outer door from that of the room they sat in, and there was another hesitating tap at this latter. “Come in,” again cried Carlota, and a young girl entered with a basket on her arm.
“’Tis Esther Lazaro,” said Carlota in Spanish. “Come in, child; sit here and tell me what you want.”
Esther Lazaro was the daughter of a Jew in the town, whose occupations were multifarious, and connected him closely with the garrison. He discounted officers’ bills, furnished their rooms, sold them everything they wanted—all at most exorbitant rates. Still, as is customary with military men, while perfectly aware that they could have procured what he supplied them with elsewhere at less expense, they continued to patronise and abuse him rather than take the trouble of looking out for a more liberal dealer. As the difficulties of the garrison increased, he had not failed to take advantage of them, and it was even said he was keeping back large stores of provisions and necessaries till the increasing scarcity should enable him to demand his own terms for them.
His daughter was about fifteen years old—a pretty girl, with hair of the unusual colour of chestnut, plaited into thick masses on the crown of her head. Her skin was fairer than is customary with her race—her eyes brown and soft in expression, her face oval, and her figure, even at this early age, very graceful, being somewhat more precocious than an English girl’s at those years. She was a favourite with the ladies of the garrison, who often employed her to procure feminine matters for them. Carlota, particularly, had always treated her with great kindness—and hence the present visit. She had come, she said timidly, to ask a favour—a great favour. She had a little dog that she loved. (Here a great commotion in the basket seemed to say she had brought her protégé with her.) He had been given to her by a young school friend who was dead, and her father would no longer let her keep it, because, he said, these were no times to keep such creatures, when provisions, even those fit for a dog, were so dear. He was a very good little dog—would the Señora take him?
“Let us look at him, Esther,” said Owen—“I see you have brought him with you.”
“He is not pretty,” said Esther, blushing as she produced him from the basket. He certainly was not, being a small cur, marked with black and white, like a magpie, with a tail curling over his back. He did not appear at all at his ease in society, for he tried to shrink back again into the basket.