I had the
advantage of a very handsome face, but it was disguised by the shaven
crown and the unbecoming manner of cutting the hair; the coarse and
unwieldly monastic dress belonging to our order hid the symmetry of my
limbs, which, might have otherwise attracted notice on the Prado. I soon
perceived that, although my singing was admired by the other sex, their
admiration went no further. They seemed to consider that in every other
point I was, as I ought to have been, dead to the world.
There was a young lady, Donna Sophia, whom I had for some time
instructed in music, who appeared to be more favourably inclined. She
was an excellent performer, and passionately fond of the science: and I
have always observed, your highness, that between the real amateurs of
harmony there is a sympathy, a description of free-masonry, which
immediately puts them on a level, and on terms of extreme intimacy; so
much so, that were I a married man, and my wife extremely partial to
music, I should be very careful how I introduced to her a person of a
similar feeling, if I possessed it not myself. I was very much in the
good graces of this young lady, and flattered myself with a successful
issue: when one day, as we were singing a duet, a handsome young officer
made his appearance. His hair, which was of the finest brown, curled in
natural ringlets: and his clothes were remarkably well-fitted to his
slender and graceful figure. He was a cousin, who had just returned from
Carthagena; and as he was remarkably attentive, I soon perceived that
all my advances had been thrown away, and that I was more and more in
the background each morning that I made my appearance.
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