Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/279

Rh things Yaco is even prodigal; in others he is mean; and in some, again, he appears to be generous. You will see whether I am right in saying this.

In one of the vallies adjacent to the capital, we have a rural retreat to which we repair very often; but these excursions, instead of diverting me, tend to mortify me still more. The apartments of our country-house are very good, and would be infinitely convenient, if the great number of house-dogs my husband maintains, did not keep them constantly dirty and full of fleas, insomuch, that it does not answer any purpose to sweep them daily. He is enraged when he hears any one of his pointers howl, refusing absolutely to allow them to be tied up, and distributing to them food from his table, in preference to his own children. What is most pleasant is this, that while he is guilty of these weaknesses, he quarrels with me if he sees me caress my little dog, or set aside a few of the sweetmeats for a little mulatto girl I have purchased, and whom I am rearing for my favourite domestic. For these reasons, and either on account of the moroseness of Yaco, or of his sordid disposition, we are not visited by any one when we are in the country. I alone am condemned to suffer the wearisomeness of solitude, because my husband knows the direction he is to take when any diversion is on foot. He never loses a meeting at Miraflores, at la Magdalena, or at Surco, and there he plays like a madman. When he loses, which happens very frequently, he returns to his house, and inveighs vehemently against the expences I incur in dressing the children and domestics. On the last Sunday of the past month he lost