“No one could be truer, more faithful and honorable than my husband. Spaniards are much like other folk, there are good and bad among them; so far I have found the good to predominate. Do you find all our own countrymen absolutely blameless? The Spaniards are proud, to be sure.” “I’ve been looking for that far-famed Spanish pride,” said Patty, “but up to the present I have discovered only the frankest conceit, and have been wondering if that passes for pride.” “Oh, conceit isn’t confined to Spaniards. I’d like you to find anything more conceited than an out and out American or Englishman?” “Not in just the same way. There is a childishness about the Spaniard’s conceit.” “Which makes it much more endurable.” “Dear me, how we do argue in and out, first on one side and then on the other. All right, Tina, I’ll consider it.” “Don’t you make Tomás unhappy, that is all I ask. I don’t want you to get him into your toils and then drop him.” “How can I tell anything about him unless I do get him into my toils as you express it?” “Oh, go ’long, you foolish child; you are too much for me.” “I’m too much for myself sometimes,” confessed Patty. She went to the window and began dropping bits of biscuit to the turkey-hen below, who turned a mild eye upward and solicited the alms in a little cooing voice. “I never knew that turkey-hens had such lovely eyes,” remarked Patty; “this one is quite fascinating which is more than I can say of the pig. Oh, come here, Tina, and see these beauty parrots, two of them. A man has brought them out from the next house and has set them free on the _plaza_. They are walking all about and are so funny.” “The _plaza_ is the place where everything goes on,” returned her sister. “It is a very diverting place, I find. There comes Juan walking as if an idea had suddenly cropped up in his cranium.” “He is not coming at such a pace as warrants us to think there is anything very exciting on hand.” “His pace is quite energetic for a Spaniard. Don’t you know, my dear, that it is very inelegant to seem hurried in Spain? If you wish to be considered a lady of quality, you must merely saunter; never seem in a hurry to get anywhere.” “Oh dear, and I do love to fly along. I like to walk with vim and take my exercise as if I enjoyed it.” “Don’t do it in Spain. Well?” Doña Martina leaned over to speak to her husband who had paused beneath the balcony. “Would we like to go to a peasant’s home to see an ancient loom? A patient of yours? Old Antonia? Why, I am sure we should like it. You would wouldn’t you, Patty?” “I’d delight in it. Where’s Polly? I know she will be ready for any sort of outing.” “We can come around by the _playa_ if you care to walk so far,” Don Juan told them as the three joined him below stairs. “And what is the _playa_, please?” asked Paulette. “The seashore, the beach.” “Oh, do let us go there. I have been crazy to see it,” said Patty. “We can walk any distance, can’t we, Polly?”