face and as merry as a lark. Everything was forgotten, and we were like a pair of honeymoon lovers. Just as we were parting she said, 'There's a fête at Cordova; I shall go and see it, and then I shall know what people will be coming away with money, and I can warn you.'
"I let her go. When I was alone I thought about the fête, and about the change in Carmen's temper. 'She must have avenged herself already,' said I to myself, 'since she was the first to make our quarrel up.' A peasant told me there was to be bull-fighting at Cordova. Then my blood began to boil, and I went off like a madman straight to the bull-ring. I had Lucas pointed out to me, and on the bench, just beside the barrier, I recognised Carmen. One glance at her was enough to turn my suspicion into certainty. When the first bull appeared Lucas began, as I had expected, to play the agreeable; he snatched the cockade off the bull and presented it to Carmen, who put it in her hair at once.[1]
"The bull avenged me. Lucas was knocked down, with his horse on his chest, and the bull on
- ↑ La divisa. A knot of ribbon, the colour of which indicates the pasturage from which each bull comes. This knot of ribbon is fastened into the bull's hide with a sort of hook, and it is considered the very height of gallantry to snatch it off the living beast and present it to a woman.
