DAWN AND THE DONS 136
casion required. Here stern duenhas watched with vigilant eye the attempts at love making that were sure to be inaugurated when some silver-tongued caballero wandered in, but which Spanish custom forbade. Instead, the young lover must publicly proclaim his preference through nocturnal devotions with his guitar. Through the _ sweetly scented air of the night, picturesque caballeros, loving
love
and _ life,
strummed their guitars beneath the windows of the seforitas of their choice, ardently wooing them by singing in rich, soft voices the appealing songs those Spanish sehores could make so effective. Happy was the outcome of his wooing if a token of his beloved’s approval fell at his feet. But it was the parents who received him, and accepted or rejected as they saw fit. The happiest events
