[Illustration: "They made an Idol of me."]

"They are wretchedly paid in Spain," I observed.

"They are," he acquiesced. "I was paid a week in advance, and have
lived upon the proceeds ever since. And now my life was indeed a merry
one. I was free of the Ring. Now I played the cornet in the _Brassos
Banderillos_, and my performance pleased the _aficionados_ (or
advertising agents) so well, that my name was known throughout the
Peninsula."

"Well," once more I interrupted, "I suppose you met a Spanish beauty,
fell in love with her, and was cut out by a party of the name of
JUAN?"

"However do you think of such clever things?" asked the old man, in a
tone of extreme astonishment. "But you are right. I placed CLEMENCIA
one day in the _pal co_ (or part reserved for friends), and the bull
tossed me. Ah, she trampled upon me--treated me like a mat. But I
loved her and adored myself. Hence I was called a 'Mat-Adorer.' I
repeat, the bull tossed me, and I did not come down heads."

"Go on."

"I was ill, and neglected, but soon recovered sufficiently to kill
sixty-six bulls in succession."

"Surely you are exaggerating?"

"You are perfectly right," he answered, with a blush. "I killed