The Curate 



he embraced the marques with great affection and a profuse 

 ejaculation of "vayas."^ The marques presented me as "un 

 Ingles amigo mio." — " Y muy amigo mio — Vaya, vaya, 

 vaya ! " answered the courteous cura^ for so he effectively 

 turned out, though at first I took him to be some superin- 

 tendent over the head of the stout Madruga. 



We now entered the house, where, at the end of one of 

 the galleries, a great wood fire was burning on the hearth. 

 Here we whiled away the time till supper, which, though 

 bespoken at nine, made its appearance at eight ; for in 

 Spain meals, as well as all other arrangements, are ruled 

 more by a sort of general approximation to the fitness of 

 things than by any precise hours. The supper comprised 

 gazpacho, and salad, and eggs fried in oil, with a little cold 

 chicken and ham to eke out. We then returned to our 

 blazing fire-side, which flared with a brilliant white fiame, 

 some borruja (the oily offal of the olive-press) having been 

 thrown on the embers. 



Here we smoked and talked, and were shortly joined by 

 Madruga, who seated himself also by the fire, and discoursed 

 in a somewhat sententious and confidential manner concern- 

 ing the interests of the hacienda^ the price of oil, &c. The 

 marques from time to time supplied him with cigarillos 

 from a special parcel which he brought on purpose for his 

 people. It was an edifying sight to see the solemn and 

 deliberate manner in which he lighted them. In a pause 

 of his talk, he would take a wooden ember in the tongs, 

 and, holding it several minutes in suspense, he would pro- 

 ceed to dilate on matters of state ; then, in another pause, 

 he would blow the cinder to keep it alight, and after a while 



' Literally "Go !" an interjection which, according to the 

 tone, expresses encouragement or reprobation. " Get along " is 

 perhaps nearest to it in our idiom. 



8i 



