along a branch of the hedge got hold of the lace of my band, and tore it
a little; the young lady stepped up and pinned it with a silver pin, and
her mother bade me send it to her house the next day, and Donna Anna, so
the maiden was called, would mend it. All the repast was in excellent
order, hot and cold, fruit and sweetmeats.
When the cloth was taken away, I spied a gentleman coming along the
garden with two servants after him, and who should this be but my old
master, Don Diego Coronel. He drew near, and, seeing me in this habit,
could not take his eyes off me, talked to the women, calling them
cousins, and all the time turned to look again and again. I kept talking
to the butler, while the other two gentlemen, my master's friends, were
in deep discourse with him. He asked them, as afterwards appeared, my
name, and they answered, it was Don Philip Tristan, a very honest
gentleman of a great estate. I saw him cross himself, and at length he
came up to me before them all, and said, "Sir, will you pardon me, for,
by the Lord, till I heard your name, I took you for a different person
from what you are; in my life I never saw anything so like a servant I
had at Segovia, called little Pablo, the son of a barber in that town."
They all laughed heartily, and I used all the art I could to forbear
betraying myself by blushing, and said, "I long mightily to see that
man, because abundance of people had told me I was extremely like him."
"Good God," cried Don Diego, "like him! I never saw such a resemblance,
his very shape, voice and mien. I declare to you, Sir, it is a marvel,
and I never beheld any two so exactly alike." The old women, mother and
aunt, asked how it was possible that a gentleman of such quality should
be so like that mean scoundrel. And that there should be no suspicion on
them, one said, "I know Don Philip very well, it was he that entertained
us at Ocaña, by my husband's order." I took the cue, and answered, "I
should always be ready to do them all the service I could everywhere."
Don Diego offered his service and begged pardon for the affront of
taking me for the barber's son, adding, "Sir, you will scarce believe
it, but his mother was a witch, his father a thief, his uncle the
hangman, and he himself the wickedest base fellow in the world." It is
easy to guess what I felt, hearing such scandalous things said of me to
my face; I sat upon thorns, though I did all I could to dissemble my
uneasiness. My two new acquaintance and I took our leave, and Don Diego
went into the coach with the ladies. Then he asked them what was the
meaning of the treat, and their being with me? The mother and aunt told
him I was heir to so many thousand ducats a year, and had a mind to
marry Anna; that he might inquire into the matter, and he would see how
proper an affair it was, and how advantageous to their family. This
discourse lasted till they got home, which was near the church of St.
Philip.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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