city inquired for the house of Luscinda's parents. The first person

I asked gave me more in reply than I sought to know; he showed me

the house, and told me all that had occurred at the betrothal of the

daughter of the family, an affair of such notoriety in the city that

it was the talk of every knot of idlers in the street. He said that on

the night of Don Fernando's betrothal with Luscinda, as soon as she

had consented to be his bride by saying 'Yes,' she was taken with a

sudden fainting fit, and that on the bridegroom approaching to