“I confess, my poor count,” replied Lorenzo, “that your service has been attended with danger; yet am I so far from supposing it be past all endurance that I shall probably solicit you to carry on your amours still further.”

“From that petition I conclude that the little Antonia has made some impression upon you.”

“I cannot express to you how much I am charmed with her. Since my father’s death, my uncle the Duke de Medina, has signified to me his wishes to see me married; I have till now eluded his hints, and refused to understand them; but what I have seen this evening.⁠ ⁠…”

“Well? What have you seen this evening? Why surely, Don Lorenzo, you cannot be mad enough to think of making a wife out of this granddaughter of ‘as honest a painstaking shoemaker as any in Cordova’?”

“You forget, that she is also the granddaughter of the late Marquis de las Cisternas; but without disputing about birth and titles, I must assure you, that I never beheld a woman so interesting as Antonia.”