第1章

I am an Englishman,living,as all Englishman should do,in England,and my wife would not,I think,be well pleased were any one to insinuate that she were other than an Englishwoman;but in the circumstances of my marriage I became connected with the south of Spain,and the narrative which I am to tell requires that I should refer to some of those details.

The Pomfrets and Daguilars have long been in trade together in this country,and one of the partners has usually resided at Seville for the sake of the works which the firm there possesses.My father,James Pomfret,lived there for ten years before his marriage;and since that and up to the present period,old Mr.Daguilar has always been on the spot.He was,I believe,born in Spain,but he came very early to England;he married an English wife,and his sons had been educated exclusively in England.His only daughter,Maria Daguilar,did not pass so large a proportion of her early life in this country,but she came to us for a visit at the age of seventeen,and when she returned I made up my mind that I most assuredly would go after her.

So I did,and she is now sitting on the other side of the fireplace with a legion of small linen habiliments in a huge basket by her side.

I felt,at the first,that there was something lacking to make my cup of love perfectly delightful.It was very sweet,but there was wanting that flower of romance which is generally added to the heavenly draught by a slight admixture of opposition.I feared that the path of my true love would run too smooth.When Maria came to our house,my mother and elder sister seemed to be quite willing that I should be continually alone with her;and she had not been there ten days before my father,by chance,remarked that there was nothing old Mr.Daguilar valued so highly as a thorough feeling of intimate alliance between the two families which had been so long connected in trade.I was never told that Maria was to be my wife,but I felt that the same thing was done without words;and when,after six weeks of somewhat elaborate attendance upon her,I asked her to be Mrs.

John Pomfret,I had no more fear of a refusal,or even of hesitation on her part,than I now have when I suggest to my partner some commercial transaction of undoubted advantage.

But Maria,even at that age,had about her a quiet sustained decision of character quite unlike anything I had seen in English girls.Iused to hear,and do still hear,how much more flippant is the education of girls in France and Spain than in England;and I know that this is shown to be the result of many causes--the Roman Catholic religion being,perhaps,chief offender;but,nevertheless,I rarely see in one of our own young women the same power of a self-sustained demeanour as I meet on the Continent.It goes no deeper than the demeanour,people say.I can only answer that I have not found that shallowness in my own wife.

Miss Daguilar replied to me that she was not prepared with an answer;she had only known me six weeks,and wanted more time to think about it;besides,there was one in her own country with whom she would wish to consult.I knew she had no mother;and as for consulting old Mr.Daguilar on such a subject,that idea,I knew,could not have troubled her.Besides,as I afterwards learned,Mr.Daguilar had already proposed the marriage to his partner exactly as he would have proposed a division of assets.My mother declared that Maria was a foolish chit--in which by-the-bye she showed her entire ignorance of Miss Daguilar's character;my eldest sister begged that no constraint might he put on the young lady's inclinations--which provoked me to assert that the young lady's inclinations were by no means opposed to my own;and my father,in the coolest manner suggested that the matter might stand over for twelve months,and that I might then go to Seville,and see about it!Stand over for twelve months!Would not Maria,long before that time,have been snapped up and carried off by one of those inordinately rich Spanish grandees who are still to be met with occasionally in Andalucia?

My father's dictum,however,had gone forth;and Maria,in the calmest voice,protested that she thought it very wise.I should be less of a boy by that time,she said,smiling on me,but driving wedges between every fibre of my body as she spoke."Be it so,"Isaid,proudly."At any rate,I am not so much of a boy that I shall forget you.""And,John,you still have the trade to learn,"she added,with her deliciously foreign intonation--speaking very slowly,but with perfect pronunciation.The trade to learn!However,I said not a word,but stalked out of the room,meaning to see her no more before she went.But I could not resist attending on her in the hall as she started;and,when she took leave of us,she put her face up to be kissed by me,as she did by my father,and seemed to receive as much emotion from one embrace as from the other."He'll go out by the packet of the 1st April,"said my father,speaking of me as though I were a bale of goods."Ah!that will be so nice,"said Maria,settling her dress in the carriage;"the oranges will be ripe for him then!"On the 17th April I did sail,and felt still very like a bale of goods.I had received one letter from her,in which she merely stated that her papa would have a room ready for me on my arrival;and,in answer to that,I had sent an epistle somewhat longer,and,as I then thought,a little more to the purpose.Her turn of mind was more practical than mine,and I must confess my belief that she did not appreciate my poetry.