it--it was quite calm. Then I tried the same game on a sheep, and
got knocked down for my pains! One of my monkey tricks! Then I got
acquainted with some Irish bulls, and letting them off on my friends
got several thumps on the head."

"No," I interrupted him sternly, "get on with your story."

"Well, at length I met JUAN at the beginning of May."

"Make it first of April," I said, severely.

"He was the Toreador out of _Carmen_, to put it shortly," he
continued, not deigning to notice my interruption--"and he introduced
me to the bull-fight. Of course I had to pay my footing (a very
uncertain one) in _duros_, or hard cash. Then every morning I ate a
_chuto_ (a sort of small cabbage) at my dinner--then they tried me as
a _capa_, to test (so they said) my capability. The chief patron was
the Duke of MEDICINA, who in early youth had been a doctor--hence his
title--and I shall never forget his first greeting."

"Your story!" I interrupted, sternly, finding that the old man was
once more becoming tedious.

"I returned," replied the dotard, with a senile chuckle, "that he was
wrong. His answer was beyond my meaning--he muttered something about
'mutton and _capa_ sauce.' I was engaged," continued the dotard, with
a feeble grin, "as a _capa_ for seventy years certain, with an annual
benefit once in four years, with a salary of forty-two thousand a
year--which in those days seemed to me to be a small fortune."