The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1900-12-28

and wailing Panehita, while the equal.
ly wailing bona Antonia barred her
shop door In the very face of gaping
customers and locked the kitchen door
upon herself. No; not even that grace.
less Carlos should enter IL, as was al
ways his custom, he came home peni.
tent and entreating at supper time.
For once Carlos should be. severely
handled and taught sense and decent
behavior.
That vas at 8 o'clock. At o Carlos
had not yet returned; ut 10 there vas
stu no sign of him. and Dona Antonio
was beginning to grow very uneasy.
Something must have happened, for,
no matter what was wrong, he always
came for his meals. At II he was still
missing; so at II the poor woman put
of the delinquent.
At the Cantina del ITO Pope she
found him weeping bitterly in the
midst of sympathetic comrades, who
%reproached the lady for her cruel treat.
ment Of poor Carlos. Truly she had
not seen what every one else well knew
that Carlos loved no n but her.
"All the world" knew that the shame
less Panchita pursued him with her
coquetries. Fie upon Dona Antonia to
so Ill treat poor. faithful Carlos, who
had been driven to drink and threat
ened suicide through her hardness of
heart!
v>xx-n ,,,,,o.1nv 90 yrinl rl fha
~incapacitated Carlos, with Dona An.
tonia weeping remorsefully behind
them and sundry other toreros winking
and %chuckling in turn behind her back.
For, while in luck, Carlos was as gen
erous n torero as ever lived, and 1t
would not do, for their own sakes, to
have Dona Antonio cut off his supplies.
And so, as the cortege wendell its way
toward the little shop of bona Antonio,
one shameless b%ullfghter after anoth-
err poured into her ear tales of poor
Carlos persecution at the hands OF
Panchita. Well knew the Virgin, they
declared solemnly, that Carlos cared
for no woman but his own adored An
tonia. Had he not sworn it to them
many a time and oft? And was it his
fault if infatuated girls would make
unwanted love to him?
Nothing is easier to deceive than a
woman who wishes to be deceived,
and Dona Antonia believed devoutly
every wore of the waggish toreros.
Carlos was put tenderly to bed, the
bulltighters Toasted gayly on white
bread, sardines, garlic and Spanish
wine, while bona Antonio, with con-
trite face and REDEEMED eyes, beamed
upon them from the door of Carlos
They had opened her eyes to
the real character of that disgraceful
Panchita. whom she had credited time
and again on her thread and needles
and wool. How foolish n woman she
had been not to realize before the de-
votion of Carlos and the evil behavior
of Panchita!
Before the noisy departure Of the
toreros Dona Antonia's plans for venge-
ance had been completed. When she
went to sleep that night, she said sew
eral padre nuestros before the image
of la Nirgen and promised to burn long
and costly candles before her picture
every day of the year if certain pray.
ers were granted. And then, wisely
believing that God and also the Virgin
helps those who help themselves, the
willy shopkeeper made her plans for an
early visit next morning to old Madre
Maria, the witch, who would tell her,
for a consideration, what she should do
with that graceless Panchita.
Madre Maria lived in Il small, dark,
smelly tenement far out. Here Dona
Antonio found her at dawn, and into
the sympathetic ear of the shriveled
old woman she unfOlded her tale Of
woe, while Madre Maria smoked away
steadily at her cigar stub, nodding her
white head at intervals as she listened.
Good! Then what the nina wanted
was a cOsita-a small charm, that is to
s8y-fOr the shameless Panchita? Some
thing not dangerous, the nina under
stood-merely a little thing that would,
after taking it, cause her to lose any
love for Don Carlos. Ale, but it would
be easy! And only n matter Of five
days at that. If the nina would listen,
paying to her pobre madre first the
small number of s ~reales, she would
tell her what to do.
Half an hour later, with a wee bottle
Of black fluid in her pocket and n thin,
black chicken mutled up in her reboso,
bona Antonio sped briskly toward the
Street of the Little White Fish. Joy
and hope once more shone In her eyes
and beamed from her fat, red face,
even though the advice and charm Of
Madre Maria had cost her $3.50.
Most assuredly it was old Maria's
day" Hardly was the broad back Of
Dona Antonio turned than another eli
ent appeared upon the scene, also be-
speaking advice and a mild charm that
would destroy the love of n rival wom-
an. In the same manner did Madre
Maria advise the second applicant-no
less a person than Panchita-selling
her, in turn, some white fluid and an
at~tenuated white chicken, the mate Of
the black one sold TO Dona Antonio.
"Of a truth did the chicken come some
what high" the old witch had stated
to each applicant, "but figure to your
GOLF nina rnia tbot n 10 a charmed