For this it was that he had hinted something about thieves and the state of Fernando, and proposed looking in to see if the portmanteaus were still safe at the Casa Real, so I resolved to be revenged for the double dealing of his proposal upon seeing the top of the Cologne bottle peeping out from his shooting-jacket pocket. I watched a chance, and snatched it away without being noticed, determined that the half-caste beauty whose praises he was so eloquent in during our promenade, should not have him to thank it for at all events. We reached the house, and were well received by the Capitan, who pressed us to stop with him, and when he found we were engaged, invited us to pass next day with him, which, as the beauty was looking her very best, there was great risk of our doing, in preference to prosecuting our pig-shooting scheme, as had been originally intended. Poor Adam was evidently smitten by her attractions. After talking with these good people for some time, I observed that his attention was engrossed in watching Rita's movements, when, as the Capitan, his wife, and myself were all standing at an open window, looking at the flowers in his garden, and talking away, and their daughter, occupied in some household duty, was leaving the sala, Adam, who had been watching like a lynx for such an opportunity, seized it on the moment, and managed to slip away from us, and get out of the room after her, in the hopes of being able to snatch a kiss or something of the sort, and to present the scented water, which he had not missed from his pocket, although as he slipped away in all the agitation of pursuit, I saw first one hand and then the other slipped into the pockets of the coat where it should have been; but he was so much engaged in getting out of the room quickly and silently, that he did not miss it. Reaching the open door just as she had gone out, when about two paces beyond it, he popped his head over her shoulder unobserved, and stole a kiss; I heard the smack, then a rustle, and then a titter, during which Adam was searching his pockets for the missing bottle, which of course he did not find there; and when he said something or other about the kiss, he foolishly, in his search for it, told her that he had lost so very desirable a present; upon which, as he afterwards told me, the beauty looked saucy, and very plainly did not believe a word about it, but fancied he had invented the story to excuse the kiss, and pretended to get a little angry with the liberty taken with her blooming cheek; so she walked off, and left him quite at a loss to account for its disappearance.