But for the greater part they appeared and disappeared silently and
swiftly, and left the spectator to helpless conjecture of their history.
Many of them would have first met their husbands in the cathedral when
they prayed, or when they began to look around to see who was looking at
them. It might have been their trysting-place, safeguarding them in
their lovers' meetings, and after marriage it had become their social
world, when their husbands left them for the clubs or the cafes. They
could not go at night, of course, except to some special function, but
they could come by day as often as they liked. I do not suppose that the
worshipers I saw habitually united love or friendship with their
devotions in the cathedral, but some certainly joined business with
devotion; at a high function one day an American girl felt herself
sharply nudged in the side, and when she turned she found the palm of
her kneeling neighbor stretched toward her. They must all have had their
parish churches besides the cathedral, and a devotee might make the day
a social whirl by visiting one shrine after another. But I do not think
that many do. The Spanish women are of a domestic genus, and are
expected to keep at home by the men who expect to keep abroad.
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