"I Puritani."

Armando Palacio Valdés. Pp. 2224-239.

Summary: A young married man of 29. Visiting Madrid. He walks under a balcony and is hit by a doll thrown at him by a thirteen-year-old girl. For some reason, he is attracted to her. They get to know each other. He always walks by her balcony. She always watches for him.

One night, she fools her caretaker and joins him in the street. They walk arm-in-arm and hand-in-hand through the streets. She chatters her girlish chatter. They enter a theater where an opera is playing. “I Puritani” is sung.

They leave the theater. She makes him promise to be at her balcony the next day at 2:00 P.M. He assures her that he will. He doesn’t show up. He has left town to go back to his wife and home town.

He has never forgotten that thirteen-year-old girl, her girlish chatter, their flirtatious behavior on their only “date.”

Comment. “Lolita.” RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956.