" 'And if I catch you doing any gipsy business in this style again, I'll see to it that you never do any again!' said I.
" 'Ah! upon my word! Are you my /rom/, pray that you give me orders?
If /El Tuerto/ is pleased, what have you to do with it? Oughtn't you to be very happy that you are the only man who can call himself my /minchorro/?'
My "lover," or rather my "fancy."
" 'What does he say?' inquired the Englishman.
" 'He says he's thirsty, and would like a drink,' answered Carmen, and she threw herself back upon a sofa, screaming with laughter at her own translation.
"When that girl begins to laugh, sir, it was hopeless for anybody to try and talk sense. Everybody laughed with her. The big Englishman began to laugh too, like the idiot he was, and ordered the servant to bring me something to drink.
"While I was drinking she said to me:
" 'Do you see that ring he has on his finger? If you like I'll give it to you.'
"And I answered:
" 'I would give one of my fingers to have your /milord/ out on the mountains, and each of us with a /maquila/ in his fist.'
" '/Maquila/, what does that mean?' asked the Englishman.
" 'Maquila,' said Carmen, still laughing, 'means an orange. Isn't it a queer word for an orange? He says he'd like you to eat /maquila/.'
" 'Does he?' said the Englishman. 'Very well, bring more /maquila/to-morrow.'
"While we were talking a servant came in and said dinner was ready.
Then the Englishman stood up, gave me a piastre, and offered his arm to Carmen, as if she couldn't have walked alone. Carmen, who was still laughing, said to me:
" 'My boy, I can't ask you to dinner. But to-morrow, as soon as you hear the drums beat for parade, come here with your oranges. You'll find a better furnished room than the one in the /Calle del Candilejo/, and you'll see whether I am still your /Carmencita/. Then afterwards we'll talk about gipsy business.'
"I gave her no answer--even when I was in the street I could hear the Englishman shouting, 'Bring more /maquila/ to-morrow,' and Carmen's peals of laughter.
"I went out, not knowing what I should do; I hardly slept, and next morning I was so enraged with the treacherous creature that I made up my mind to leave Gibraltar without seeing her again. But the moment the drums began to roll, my courage failed me. I took up my net full of oranges, and hurried off to Carmen's house. Her window-shutters had been pulled apart a little, and I saw her great dark eyes watching for me. The powdered servant showed me in at once. Carmen sent him out with a message, and as soon as we were alone she burst into one of her fits of crocodile laughter and threw her arms around my neck. Never had I seen her look so beautiful. She was dressed out like a queen, and scented; she had silken furniture, embroidered curtains--and Itogged out like the thief I was!
" '/Minchorro/,' said Carmen, 'I've a good mind to smash up everything here, set fire to the house, and take myself off to the mountains.'
And then she would fondle me, and then she would laugh, and she danced about and tore up her fripperies. Never did monkey gambol nor make such faces, nor play such wild tricks, as she did that day. When she had recovered her gravity--" 'Hark!' she said, 'this is gipsy business. I mean him to take me to Ronda, where I have a sister who is a nun' (here she shrieked with laughter again). 'We shall pass by a particular spot which I shall make known to you. Then you must fall upon him and strip him to the skin. Your best plan would be to do for him, but,' she added, with a certain fiendish smile of hers, which no one who saw it ever had any desire to imitate, 'do you know what you had better do? Let /El Tuerto/ come up in front of you. You keep a little behind. The crayfish is brave, and skilful too, and he has good pistols. Do you understand?'
"And she broke off with another fit of laughter that made me shiver.
" 'No,' said I, 'I hate Garcia, but he's my comrade. Some day, maybe, I'll rid you of him, but we'll settle our account after the fashion of my country. It's only chance that has made me a gipsy, and in certain things I shall always be a thorough Navarrese, as the proverb says.
/Navarro fino/.
" 'You're a fool,' she rejoined, 'a simpleton, a regular /payllo/.
You're just like the dwarf who thinks himself tall because he can spit a long way. You don't love me! Be off with you!'
/Or esorjle de or marsichisle, sin chisnar lachinguel/. "The promise of a dwarf is that he will spit a long way."--A gipsy proverb.
"Whenever she said to me 'Be off with you," I couldn't go away. Ipromised I would start back to my comrades and wait the arrival of the Englishman. She, on her side, promised she would be ill until she left Gibraltar for Ronda.
"I remained at Gibraltar two days longer. She had the boldness to disguise herself and come and see me at the inn. I departed, I had a plan of my own. I went back to our meeting-place with the information as to the spot and the hour at which the Englishman and Carmen were to pass by. I found /El Dancaire/ and Garcia waiting for me. We spent the night in a wood, beside a fire made of pine-cones that blazed splendidly. I suggested to Garcia that we should play cards, and he agreed. In the second game I told him he was cheating; he began to laugh; I threw the cards in his face. He tried to get at his blunderbuss. I set my foot on it, and said, 'They say you can use a knife as well as the best ruffian in Malaga; will you try it with me?'
