That idiot, your brother, let him come to the house, proud of the honour that was being done to the family.

You know, Gabriel, the eternal blindness of those middle-class Toledans, who encourage with pride the courtship of one of their girls by a cadet, though they are perfectly well aware that it is most rare that one of these courtships should end in marriage.

There is no woman here with the slightest pretence to a pretty face who has escaped without her mouthful of love for one of those red pantaloons.

Even I remember when I was a girl how I would smooth my hair and pull out my dress when I heard the rattle of a sword on the flags of the cloister.

It is a blindness that descends from mothers to daughters, and the worst is, that those cursed ones have all their cousins and their lovers in their own country, and to them they return as soon as they leave the Academy." "That is true, aunt, but what happened to my niece ?" "When the young man passed out a lieutenant, his family decided he ought to return to Madrid.