CHAPTER XX

.

THE STORY OF A LIFE.

Lerida by daylight--Second city in Catalonia--Past history--Days of the Goths--And Moors--Becomes a bishopric--Troublous times--Brave people--Striking cathedral--Splendid outlines--Desecration--The new cathedral--Senseless tyranny--One of the most interesting of towns--Crowded market-place--Picturesque arcades and ancient gateways--Wine-pressers--Good offer refused--Another revelation--Wonderful streets--Amongst the immortals--Our Boot-cleaner in Ordinary again--Thereby hangs a tale--His story--Blind wife--Modest request--Nerissa--Charming room--Little queen in the arm-chair--Faultless picture--Renouncements but no regrets--"All a new world"--Time to pass out of life--Back to the quiet streets--H. C. contemplative--Proposes emigration to Salt Lake City--Lerida glorified by its idyll 296

##