Just as I was introduced and began to like the
grandees, I was forced to leave it for this cursed place; but before I
return to England I will visit it again.
"The night before I left it, I sat in the box at the opera, with
admiral ----'s family, an aged wife and a fine daughter, Sennorita
----. The girl is very pretty, in the Spanish style; in my opinion, by
no means inferior to the English in charms, and certainly superior in
fascination. Long, black hair, dark languishing eyes, clear olive
complexions, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived
by an Englishman used to the drowsy listless air of his countrywomen,
added to the most becoming dress, and, at the same time, the most
decent in the world, render a Spanish beauty irresistible.
"Miss ---- and her little brother understood a little French, and,
after regretting my ignorance of the Spanish, she proposed to become
my preceptress in that language. I could only reply by a low bow, and
express my regret that I quitted Cadiz too soon to permit me to make
the progress which would doubtless attend my studies under so charming
a directress. I was standing at the back of the box, which resembles
our Opera boxes, (the theatre is large and finely decorated, the music
admirable,) in the manner which Englishmen generally adopt, for fear
of incommoding the ladies in front, when this fair Spaniard
dispossessed an old woman (an aunt or a duenna) of her chair, and
commanded me to be seated next herself, at a tolerable distance from
her mamma.
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