quent Reinaldo will give trouble."

"Is it true that he has been conspiring with Carillo, and that an
extraordinary and secret session of the Departmental Junta has been
called?"

He looked down upon me with his grimmest smile. "You curious little
woman! You must not put your white fingers into the Departmental pie.
If you had been a man, with as good a brain as you have for a woman,
you would have been an ornament to our politics. But as it is--pardon
me--the better for our balancing country the less you have to do with
it."

I could feel my eyes snap. "You respect no woman's mind," I said,
savagely; "nothing but the woman in her. But I will not quarrel with
you. Tell that baby over there to come and waltz with me."

At dawn, as we entered our room, I seized Chonita by the shoulders and
shook her. "What did you mean by such a performance?" I demanded. "It
was unprecedented!"

She threw back her head and laughed. "I could not help it," she said.
"First I felt an irresistible desire to show Monterey that I dared
do anything I chose. And then I have a wild something in me which has
often threatened to break loose before; and to-night it did. It was
that man. He made me."

"_Ay, Dios!"_ I thought, "it has begun already."

VII.

The festivities were to last a week, every one taking part but
Alvarado and Dona Martina. The latter was not strong enough, the
governor cared more for duty than for pleasure.

The next day we had a merienda on the hills behind the town. The green
pine woods were gay with the bright colors of the young people. Here
and there a caballero dashed up and down to show his horsemanship and
the silver and embroidered silk of his saddle. Silver, too, were
his jingling spurs, the eagles on his sombrero, the buttons on his
colorous silken jacket. Horses, without exception handsomely trapped,
were tethered everywhere, pawing the ground or nibbling the grass. The
girls wore white or flowered silk or muslin gowns, and rebosos about
their heads; the brown ugly duenas, ever at their sides, were foils
they would gladly have dispensed with. The tinkle of the guitar never
ceased, and the sweet voices of the girls and the rich voices of the
men broke forth with the joyous spontaneity of the birds' songs about
them.

Chonita wore a white silk gown, I remember flowered with blue,--large
blue lilies. The reboso matched the gown. As soon as we arrived--we
were a little late--she was surrounded by cab