_ Rather,
they questioned us with it, and they only suggested, very forbearingly,
that we should come to their house with them to see those laces, which
of course were old laces; their house was quite near. But that one of us
twain who was singly concerned in _encajes_ had fatigued and perhaps
overbought herself at the antiquity shop, and she signified a regret
which they divined too well was dissent. They looked rather than
expressed a keen little disappointment; the mother began a faint
insistence, but the daughter would not suffer it. Here was the pride of
poverty, if not poverty itself, and it was with a pang that we parted
from these mutely appealing ladies. We could not have borne it if we had
not instantly promised ourselves to come the next day and meet them and
go home with them and buy all their _encajes_ that we had money for. We
kept our promise, and we came the next day and the next and every day we
remained in Seville, and lingered so long that we implanted in the
cabmen beside the curbing the inextinguishable belief that we were in
need of a cab; but we never saw those dear ladies again.
These are some of the cruel memories which the happiest travel leaves,
and I gratefully recall that in the case of a custodian of the Columbian
Museum, which adjoins the cathedral, we did not inflict a pang that
rankled in our hearts for long.
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