CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 239 



things Yaco is even prodigal ; in others he is mean ; and in 

 some, again, he appears to be generous. You will see whether 

 I am right in saying this. 



In one of the valhes adjacent to the capital, we have a rural 

 retreat to which we repair very often ; but these excursions, 

 instead of diverting me, tend to mortify me still more. The 

 apartments of our country-house are very good, and would be 

 infinitely convenient, if the great number of house-dogs my 

 husband maintains, did not keep them constantly dirty and 

 full of fleas, insomuch, that it does not answer any purpose 

 to sweep them daily. He is enraged when he hears any one 

 of his pointers howl, refusing absolutely to allow them to be 

 tied up, and distributing to them food from his table, in pre- 

 ference to his. own children. What is most pleasant is this, 

 that while he is guilty of these weaknesses, he quarrels with 

 me if he sees me caress my -little dog, or set aside a few of the 

 sweetmeats for a little mulatto girl I have purchased, and 

 whom I am rearing for my favourite domestic. For these 

 reasons, and either on account of the moroseness of Yaco, or 

 of his sordid disposition, we are not visited by any one when 

 we are in the country. I alone am condemned to suffer the 

 wearisomeness of solitude, because my husband knows the di- 

 rection he is to take when any diversion is on foot. He never 

 loses a meeting at Miraflores, at la Magdalena, or at Surco*, 

 and there he plays like a madman. When he loses, which 

 happens very frequently, he returns to his house, and inveighs 

 vehemently against the expences I incur in dressing the chil- 

 dren and domestics. On the last Sunday of the past month he 



* The favourite resorts of gamesters^ 



lost 



