Lola Author:Arthur Griffiths Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: death. As a compromise he might live away from Gibraltar, journeying to and fro daily; but at his time of life he could not face such constant toil. At length... more », after much anxious debating, he decided to occupy a cottage of his own which lay in a sheltered nook above Rosia Bay, facing the Straits and the west wind. Making this his head-quarters, he might direct all his affairs from it; and as business would probably call him often from home, he resolved to leave little Lola in safe hands. Duenas are an institution in Spain; she should have a duena to watch over her and keep her from mischief. Tia Josefa, his housekeeper, was the very person for the post. He had taken her as a servant a year or two back, because he liked the industry and perseverance with which she hawked her fish in Crutchett's Ramp. She had served him well; and he thought he could trust her better than a stranger. Such was the establishment at Rosia Cottage—the old man, the gay girl, fresh from school restrictions, and the sober duena, full of the importance of her new rank, but ready, like the rest of her class, to sell herself to the highest bidder. CHAPTER III. SAN ROQUE FAIR. WHEN the time came for the San Roque fair and bullfights, Dolores begged hard to go; but Don Mariano was very doubtful about it. Fair-time in southern Spain is like a second carnival—even to sedate Spaniards a time of license and extravagant enjoyment. Every town has its fair at its regular season, from Seville, queen of Andalucia, down to Pedrg Abad with its three houses and one church. The whole population joins in the fun such as it is ; moving forth bodily to take up its residence on the very spot, under the trees of the Alameda, in the principal street, or out on the open plains beyond the city walls. Here they spend the...« less