But who has changed the
custom here?"
"Is it not true that in your country any married woman shall duenna
the young senorita?" continued Dona Isabel, without replying; "that any
caballero and senorita shall see each other in the patio, and not under
a balcony?--that they may speak with the lips, and not the fan?"
"Well--yes," said Brace.
"Then my brother has arranged it as so. He have much hear the Dona
Barbara Brimmer when she make talk of these things frequently, and he
is informed and impressed much. He will truly have that you will come
of the corridor, and not the garden, for me, and that I shall have no
duenna but the Dona Barbara. This does not make you happy, you American
idiot boy!"
It did not. The thought of carrying on a flirtation under the
fastidious Boston eye of Mrs. Brimmer, instead of under the discreet
and mercenarily averted orbs of Dona Ursula, did not commend itself
pleasantly to Brace.
"Oh, yes," he returned quickly. "We will go into the corridor, in the
fashion of my country"--
"Yes," said Dona Isabel dubiously.
"AFTER we have walked in the garden in the fashion of YOURS. That's only
fair, isn't it?"
"Yes," said Dona Isabel gravely; "that's what the Comandante will call
'internation-al courtesy.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234