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My impatience was increased by the fact that my father had purchased for me a fine little Mustang pony, and shipped it to Rivermouth a fortnight previous to the date set for our own departure for both my parents were to accompany me. The pony's name was Gitana, which is the Spanish for gypsy; so I always called her she was a lady pony Gypsy.
"On the top of a mountain I stand, With a crown of red gold in my hand, Wild Moors come trooping o'er the lea, O how from their fury shall I flee, flee, flee? O how from their fury shall I flee? Such was the Gitana in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and much the same is she now in the days of Isabel and Christina. . . ."
"Certainly not," said the old gitana; and she related the story of Andrew Caballero, that he was the son of Don Francisco de Cárcamo, knight of Santiago; that his name was Don Juan de Cárcamo, of the same order; and that she had kept his clothes after he had changed them for those of a gipsy.
He ceased his attendance at the theatre where she danced, only after he learned that the tenor had married her. But that dance of hers had become a part of his life. Its accompanying tune was now as necessary to his aural sensibilities as food to his stomach. He therefore spent his evenings going to theatres and concert-halls where "La Gitana" was likely to be sung or played.
Then, with a quick, peevish sigh, he fell back from weakness. We by his side did not know it at the instant, but we discovered in a short time what had taken place when his head had touched the pillow, for he remained so still. And that was the last of Billy Folsom, and up from the murmuring street below came the notes of the band-piano playing "La Gitana."
Huge rings of false gold dangle from wide slits in the lobes of her ears; her nether garments are rags, and her feet are cased in hempen sandals. Such is the wandering Gitana, such is the witch-wife of Multan, who has come to spae the fortune of the Sevillian countess and her daughters. "'O may the blessing of Egypt light upon your head, you high-born Lady!
Nevertheless, two tears were shining in the fair Cyrene's eyes. Next she ran to the piano and began to rattle off "La Gitana," which Cerito had just made so popular throughout Europe. "Have you the score?" asked the marchioness, turning to Blanka. "No, but I can play it from memory." "Then play it to me, please." Blanka complied, and the other began to dance "La Gitana" to her playing.
"Señor cavalier," she said, "though I am but a poor gitana and humbly born, yet I have a certain fantastic little spirit within me, which moves me to great things.
Do you wish to wager that I can't drive all Rome crazy over me? If I took a notion to dance the 'Gitana' on the opera-house stage for the benefit of the wounded soldiers, all Rome would go wild with enthusiasm, and the people would half smother me with flowers." "I will make no such wager with you," returned Blanka, "because I know I should lose."
Neither sun, nor wind, nor all those vicissitudes of weather, to which the gipsies are more constantly exposed than any other people, could impair the bloom of her complexion or embrown her hands; and what is more remarkable, the rude manner in which she was reared only served to reveal that she must have sprung from something better than the Gitano stock; for she was extremely pleasing and courteous in conversation, and lively though she was, yet in no wise did she display the least unseemly levity; on the contrary, amidst all her sprightliness, there was at the same time so much genuine decorum in her manner, that in the presence of Preciosa no gitana, old or young, ever dared to sing lascivious songs, or utter unbecoming words.
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