As if to inflame my curiosity even further, whether innocently or on purpose, she had a hand as white as fine porcelain—and rings just as expensive. That day I was cutting a very dashing figure myself, with that fine chain you’ve seen me wear, and my hat with the feathered band, and my flashy dress uniform. Through the eyes of my own lunacy, I looked so sharp that no woman could resist me so I entreated her to lift the veil.

“ ‘Not now,’ she whispered. ‘I have a house. Have a servant follow me there. I’m a better woman than my reply would lead you to believe, and, if only to see whether your discretion matches your fine physique, I’ll gladly let you see me.’

“I kissed her hands for the great favor she had granted me, in return for which I promised mountains of gold. The Captain ended his conversation too. The women took their leave, and a servant of mine followed them. The Captain told me that his lady wanted him to bear some letters to yet another captain in Flanders who she claimed was her cousin, though of course he was really her swain.

“As for me, I was all on fire for those snow-white hands I’d seen, and dying for a peek at her face, so I presented myself the next day at the door my servant pointed out to me and was ushered in. I found myself in a house very handsomely decorated and furnished, and in the presence of a lady of about thirty. There was no mistaking those hands. She didn’t quite paralyze you with her beauty, but enough that her conversation did the rest. Her voice had a plangent savor that won its way through the ears to the soul.

“I sweet-talked her till my lips went numb. I bragged and swaggered, offered and promised, and made all the professions I thought necessary to finagle myself into her inmost heart. But she had heard it all and more before, and listened to me attentively but not without a certain skepticism. In short, during the four days I continued to visit her, our intercourse remained stubbornly social, and her tantalizing fruit swayed just out of reach.

“In the course of my visits Doña Estefanía de Caycedo (for that was the name of my enchantress) was always alone, without any dubious relatives or even a real friend. A maid danced attendance, and had more of the sneak than the simpleton about her. Finally, pressing my suit like a soldier shipping out in the morning, I pushed my luck with Doña Estefanía, and she answered like this:

‘Good Ensign Campuzano, to pass myself off as a saint would be to flirt with idiocy. I have been a sinner and still am, but not so much that I occasion gossip among either strangers or my neighbors. I’ve inherited no fortune from either my parents or anyone else, but the furniture in my house is worth a good twenty-five hundred ducats. If put up for auction, it would fetch that sum in a heartbeat. With this dowry I’m looking for a man I can devote myself to with complete deference, who can help me lead a better life if only I set my mind to pleasing and serving him with all my heart. No master chef can claim a more refined palate than I, nor season a stew any better. I can be a majordomo in the household, a scullery maid in the kitchen, and a perfect lady in the parlor—in short, I know how to give an order and see it carried out. I waste nothing and save a great deal. Reales go much further when I’m the one spending them. I didn’t buy all my fine linens off the rack, or wholesale. My maidservants and I stitched them all, and we would have woven them at home too, if we could.

‘I’m only lavishing all this praise on myself because it would be wrong to deceive you. I just want to say that I’m looking for a husband to protect me, to command and honor me, and not some silvertongue who’ll butter me up and then run me down. All this is yours for the asking.