Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/156

140 many different faces, did you ever see a woman more beautiful than myself?"

"Well, if I must tell you the truth, I have seen a handsomer face than yours. Once, at a town in Tras-os-Montes, I saw a girl more charming than any woman I ever saw in my life. She had a lovely figure, and the sweetest and smallest feet possible."

"Indeed," replied the landlady, "then I know who she is. I want you to take a present to her the first time you go that way." She then took out of a drawer a small pair of slippers and gave them to the old woman, saying, "Here, take these to her, and tell her that it is her loving mother who sends them. But you must on no account leave them with her till you have seen her put them on; be very particular about that point, and I assure you that I shall pay you well if you follow my instructions faithfully."

The woman did as she was told, and going into the house where the girl was living, accosted her thus: "My dear girl, I bring you some slippers which your loving mother sends you, that you may wear them for her sake."

"I am not in want of shoes, as my brothers supply me with them whenever I require any, so you may, if you please, take them back to my mother."

But the old woman insisted on her putting them on, just to see if they fitted her, and so teased her