"Plenty, and to spare. The town is full of strange stories about her and her _escudero_, or gentleman-usher, an office to which she suddenly raised him from being a _moco de mulas_.[*] His goodly proportions pleased the eye of the widow." [*] A mule-driver. "Scandal again! The Duke of Alba de T—— and his two daughters,—Donna Olivia and Donna Virginia." "Three separate cards must be sent to them," said Stuart, inditing them while he spoke. "The duke is supposed to be a traitor, and in the French interest." "I assure you, Seaton, his daughters are not," replied Ronald, writing the while. "They are very beautiful girls, and Lisle is a lucky dog to have his billet in the palace of De T——. He is continually with them, either among the gardens, riding on the Prado, or flirting at home, I believe. The young senoras are never to be seen, either at church or _la Posada de los Representes_, without their most faithful cavalier and _escudero_, the Honourable Louis Lisle." "The mess get very little of his company just now. He never appears among us but at parade; and when the word "dismiss" is given, he vanishes like a ghost at cock-crow. I wonder what the Duke thinks of the matter?" "I believe, Alister, he never thinks of it at all," replied Seaton. "He is too proud to hold communication with any one, and sits in his library smoking Guadalaxara cigars and drinking sherry from dawn till sunset, keeping every one at an awful distance." "But his daughters—" "Are strictly watched by an old duenna. I got a complete history of the family from my old gossiping patron. It appears that when old Mahoud takes the duke to himself, the two girls will be immensely rich. Donna Olivia, who is as gay a coquette as one can imagine, has a castle and estate of her own, lying by the banks of the Nive, on the French side of the Pyrenees. Her sister, Virginia, who has lately obtained her liberty from a convent, by the Pope’s dispensation dissolving her vows, has become the leading star of Madrid and Aranjuez. By the death of her cousin the Marquess of Montesa, who was killed near Albuera, you will remember, she has succeeded to large estates in Valencia,—Valencia _la hermosa_,[*] the land of wine and olives. The fair sisters are closely besieged by all the threadbare cavaliers in the province,—fellows who trace their pedigrees beyond King Bamba’s days; so that Lisle has very little chance." [*] The beautiful. "He will forget them when the route comes," said Alister. "I have been desperately in love about eight times, since we landed at the Black Horse-square in Lisbon; and Louis will get over this affair, as I have done others. The flirts of one garrison-town efface the impressions made by those of the last." "Now and then a raw sub is meshed and caged, though!" "Or an old field-officer, in desperation of getting a wife at all; but generally we _rough_ it too much at present to find time to fall in love."