Inside this chapel is a beautiful statue of a boy. He wears a royal mantle and kneels before a praying desk. The boy is Alfonso.
When Henry died, it was the earnest little Isabella who became queen. Today in the Cathedral of Granada--that white and gold and silver cathedral--are the tombs of Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand.
They are carved of marble, and Isabella's pillow sinks down deeper than Ferdinand's with the weight of her head. They say that this is because her head held more brains than his.
We know she was a wise, good queen and we love her because she helped Christopher Columbus and listened to his dreams.
[Illustration: TOMBS OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, GRANADA CATHEDRAL]
But just suppose Alfonso had not died. Suppose, instead, that he had lived and ruled. Do you believe Alfonso would have listened to Columbus' dreams and understood as did his sister Isabella? And, had he not, where should we be today?
The sale of the Prince Alfonso brooch brought Pilar and her grandfather enough to live on for a week. Then once more Pilar was faced with having to give up the castanets.
Juan seemed eager to have them now. He said that the great dancing master had shown much interest in them.
This dancing master was the same one who had inquired about Pilar at the fiesta that night in Triana, though Juan, of course, did not know it.
At last the fatal day arrived when Pilar could no longer delay her visit to Juan's shop. What she would do after this last sale she had no idea. Unless her grandfather's health improved so that he might work again, things looked black for both of them.
Pilar went out onto the balcony of her house. Girl-draped balconies are as natural in Spain as donkey-dotted roads and child-filled doorways.
Pilar gazed down on the street. The morning was golden. Church bells clanged, and a knife grinder was piping on an Arab reed. A broom-maker squatted on the pavement across the way.
Pilar's eyes were full of tears as she took up the castanets and went with them into her grandfather's room.
But she mentioned nothing about selling the castanets. She could not trust herself to speak. However, her grandfather saw them in her hands, and his old eyes brightened.