Of course Mr. Crowe and Dr. Graves thoroughly acquainted themselves with the mysteries of the Bull Ring. They wished to take the ladies to a bull fight, declaring that one could not really say he had seen Spain without a visit to the national sports. As neither of the ladies had any desire to say she had “seen Spain,” they deprived themselves of this particular item of their education, and astonished the hotel proprietor by their forbearance. He protested that all the English ladies went to the fights, though they all declared it was a disgrace to Spain to tolerate such cruelty; and he laughed at what he evidently considered our national hypocrisy. To the credit of the Spanish nation, ladies do not attend the bull fights nearly so frequently as formerly. It is beginning to be unfashionable to do so. Did Mr. Crowe enjoy the sport? Strange to say, he strongly disapproved of it! He thought it a degrading and cruel spectacle; most demoralizing to the people, and a quite useless waste of life, which could have been devoted to the progress of humanity. So do our minds refract the light that comes from the actions of our fellow-men! Dr. Graves did not scruple to say, “a bull fight was just the grandest sight on all this planet!” They visited the cathedral together, and descended to the vault where Isabella and her husband lie in their leaden coffins side by side. Dr. Graves could forgive the great queen all her bigotry for having offered to pawn her jewels to send Columbus on his voyage of discovery. Nothing would satisfy him but that he must make a pilgrimage to the old bridge where the messenger overtook the heavy-hearted navigator, and brought him back to the noble queen. “So like an impulsive, generous woman, ready to sacrifice everything for an idea!” said Dr. Graves. “A very substantial idea,” replied Mr. Crowe, who detested Isabella for being a good Catholic but could not help admiring her devotion to exploration and experiment. “The acquisition of a new world to the crown of Leon and Castile was worth a few jewels.” “Don’t you think,” asked Aunt Janet, “that she was actuated by far worthier reasons than those?” Mildred was almost as much in love with Isabella as Dr. Graves, and declared “that she was moved in all her conquests and expeditions by a passionate desire to win souls for God and His Church.” “By roasting their bodies at the stake,” added Mr. Crowe. Mildred said, in her quiet, arch manner,— “We may roast people alive in the coming age of science for much less important reasons, if physiologists have their way!” This was a particularly nasty cut, as it was well known Mr. Crowe had often lamented to his class that criminals under sentence of death could not be used for scientific purposes. “We should not burn people alive, I hope,” said he. “I am not so sure of that. I have read somewhere of one of your profession boasting that he took particular delight in inflicting ‘atrocious pain’ on dogs.”