the first Grandeza; but that is of the past now in Spain, as in most countries.  To be sure, it has not there become fashionable for ladies to keep bonnet-shops or dress-making establishments, nor to open afternoon tea-rooms or orchaterias, still less to set up as so-called financiers, as it has with us.  However, even that may come to pass in the struggle for “el high life,” of which some of the Spanish writers complain so bitterly.  Imagination absolutely refuses, however, to see the Spanish woman of rank in such surroundings.

For the rest, the Spanish woman, wherever you meet her, and in whatever rank of society, is devout, naturally kind-hearted and sympathetic, polite, and entirely unaffected; a good mother, sister, daughter; hard-working and frugal, if she be of the lower class; fond above all things of gossip, and of what passes for conversation; light-hearted, full of fun and harmless mischief; born a coquette, but only with that kind of coquetry which is inseparable from unspoiled sex, with no taint of sordidness about it; and, before all things, absolutely free from affectation.  Their own expression, muy simpatica, gives better than any other the charm of the Spanish woman, whether young or old, gentle or simple.

It was the possession of all these qualities in a high degree by Dona Isabel II. that covered the multitude of her sins, and made all who came within her influence speak gently of her, and think more of excuses than of blame.  It is these qualities which give so much popularity to her daughter, the Infanta Isabel, who, like her mother, is above all things muy Espanola.  That the Spanish woman is passionate, goes without saying; one only has to watch the quick flash of her eye—­“throwing out sparks,” as their own expression may be translated—­to be aware of that.  While the eyes of the men are for the most part languid, only occasionally flashing forth, those of the women are rarely quiet for a moment; they sparkle, they languish, they flame—­a whole gamut of expression in one moment of time; and it must be confessed that they look upon man as their natural prey.

CHAPTER IV

SPANISH SOCIETY

There is something specially charming about Spanish society, its freedom from formality, the genuine pleasure and hospitality with which each guest is received, and the extreme simplicity of the entertainment.  In speaking, however, of society in Madrid and other modern towns, it must be remembered that the old manners and customs are to a great extent being modified and assimilated with those of the other Continental cities.  A great number of the Spanish nobility spend the season in Paris or in London as regularly as any of the fashionable people in France or England.  There is no country life in Spain, as we understand the word; those of the upper ten thousand who have castles or great houses in the provinces rarely visit them, and still more rarely entertain there.  A hunting or a shooting party at one of these is quite an event; so when the great people leave Madrid, it is generally to enter into London or Paris society, and, naturally, when they are at home they to a great extent retain cosmopolitan customs.  At the foreign legations or ministries also, society loses much of its specially Spanish character.