TAPADAS. 



19 



pretending to have business at home. But with- 

 in a quarter of an hour afterwards, while we were 

 lounging about in one of the most noisy of the 

 Ramadas, it was intimated to me privately, by a 

 gentleman in the secret, that three of the ladies 

 we had left were actually in our company ; but so 

 completely metamorphosed, that, even when point- 

 ed out, they were with difficulty recognised. Thus 

 made party to the joke, I soon found they came 

 as spies upon the proceedings of the master of the 

 house, the husband of one of these Tapadas, as 

 they called themselves. There had been a feud, 

 it seemed, between these ladies and some others of 

 their acquaintance, and the object of this Escapo, 

 or frolic, was to watch how the gentleman would 

 deport himself towards their foes. The ladies, 

 accordingly, had the satisfaction, or the mortifi- 

 cation, to detect him in treacherous flirtation with 

 the enemy ; this established, they allowed them- 

 selves to be discovered, to the confusion of the 

 unsuspecting parties, and immediately disappear- 

 ed. The next day we learnt that the ladies had 

 returned again, in about ten minutes afterwards, 

 differently disguised, and had amused themselves 



