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CHAPTER III

looked at me with those eyes you know, and said to me very low, ‘Comrade, people who are fond of good fritata come to eat it at Lillas Pastia’s at Triana!’

     * In most of the houses in Seville there is an inner court
     surrounded by an arched portico. This is used as a sitting-
     room in summer. Over the court is stretched a piece of tent
     cloth, which is watered during the day and removed at night.
     The street door is almost always left open, and the passage
     leading to the court (zaguan) is closed by an iron lattice
     of very elegant workmanship.

“Then, light as a kid, she stepped into the carriage, the coachman whipped up his mules, and the whole merry party departed, whither I know not.

“You may fancy that the moment I was off guard I went to Triana; but first of all I got myself shaved and brushed myself up as if I had been going on parade. She was living with Lillas Pastia, an old fried-fish seller, a gipsy, as black as a Moor, to whose house a great many civilians resorted to eat fritata, especially, I think, because Carmen had taken up her quarters there.

“‘Lillas,’ she said, as soon as she saw me. ‘I’m not going to work any

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