h! Segnor!” She cried; “You will lay our whole family under the most
signal obligations! I accept your offer with all possible gratitude,
and return you a thousand thanks for the generosity of your proposal.
Antonia, why do not you speak, Child? While the Cavalier says all sorts
of civil things to you, you sit like a Statue, and never utter a
syllable of thanks, either bad, good, or indifferent!”

“My dear Aunt, I am very sensible that....”

“Fye, Niece! How often have I told you, that you never should interrupt
a Person who is speaking!? When did you ever know me do such a thing?
Are these your Murcian manners? Mercy on me! I shall never be able to
make this Girl any thing like a Person of good breeding. But pray,
Segnor,” She continued, addressing herself to Don Christoval, “inform
me, why such a Crowd is assembled today in this Cathedral?”

“Can you possibly be ignorant, that Ambrosio, Abbot of this Monastery,
pronounces a Sermon in this Church every Thursday? All Madrid rings
with his praises. As yet He has preached but thrice; But all who have
heard him are so delighted with his eloquence, that it is as difficult
to obtain a place at Church, as at the first representation of a new
Comedy. His fame certainly must have reached your ears—”

“Alas! Segnor, till yesterday I never had the good fortune to see
Madrid; and at Cordova we are so little informed of what is passing in
the rest of the world, that the name of Ambrosio has never been
mentioned in its precincts.”

“You will find it in every one’s mouth at Madrid. He seems to have
fascinated the Inhabitants; and not having attended his Sermons myself,
I am astonished at the Enthusiasm which He has excited. The adoration
paid him both by Young and Old, by Man and Woman is unexampled. The
Grandees load him with presents; Their Wives refuse to have any other
Confessor, and he is known through all the city by the name of the ‘Man
of Holiness’.”

“Undoubtedly, Segnor, He is of noble origin—”

“That point still remains undecided. The late Superior of the Capuchins
found him while yet an Infant at the Abbey door. All attempts to
discover who had left him there were vain, and the Child himself could
give no account of his Parents. He was educated in the Monastery, where
He has remained ever since. He early showed a strong inclination for
study and retirement, and as soon as He was of a proper age, He
pronounced his vows. No one has ever appeared to claim him, or clear up
the mystery which conceals his birth; and the Monks, who find their
account in the favour which is shewn to their establishment from
respect to him, have not hesitated to publish that He is a present to
them from the Virgin. In truth the singular austerity of his life gives
some countenance to the report. He is now thirty years old, every hour
of which period has been passed in study, total seclusion from the
world, and mortification of the flesh. Till these last three weeks,
when He was chosen superior of the Society to which He belongs, He had
never been on the outside of the Abbey walls: Even now He never quits
them except on Thursdays, when He delivers a discourse in this
Cathedral which all Madrid assembles to hear. His knowledge is said to
be the most profound, his eloquence the most persuasive. In the whole
course of his life He has never been known to transgress a single rule
of his order; The smallest stain is not to be discovered upon his
character; and He is reported to be so strict an observer of Chastity,
that He knows not in what consists the difference of Man and Woman. The
common People therefore esteem him to be a Saint.”

“Does that make a Saint?” enquired Antonia; “Bless me! Then am I one?”

“Holy St. Barbara!” exclaimed Leonella; “What a question! Fye, Child,
Fye! These are not fit subjects for young Women to handle. You should
not seem to remember that there is such a thing as a Man in the world,
and you ought to imagine every body to be of the same sex with
yourself. I should like to see you 