l, who was curled on one corner of
the table, gloating over the treasures she knew her uncle's generosity
would make her own. "Look, how these little diamonds flash! And the
embroidery on this crepe!--a dozen eyes went out ay! yi! This satin
is like a tile! These fans were made in Spain! This is as big as a
windmill. God of my soul!"--she threw a handful of yellow sewing-silk
upon a piece of white satin; "Ana shall embroider this gown,--the
golden poppies of California on a bank of mountain snow." She suddenly
seized a case of topaz and a piece of scarlet silk and ran over to
me: I being a Monterena, etiquette forbade me to purchase in Santa
Barbara. "Thou must have these, my Eustaquia. They will become thee
well. And wouldst thou like any of my white things? Mary! but I am
selfish. Take what thou wilt, my friend."

To refuse would be to spoil her pleasure and insult her hospitality:
so I accepted the topaz--of which I had six sets already--and the
silk,--whose color prevailed in my wardrobe,--and told her that I
detested white, which did not suit my weather-dark skin, and she was
as blind and as pleased as a child.

"But come, come," she cried. "My father is not so generous when he has
to wait too long."

She gathered the mass of stuff in her arms and staggered up the
companion-way. I followed, leaving Prudencia raking the trove her
short arms would not hold.

"Ay, my Chonita!" she wailed, "I cannot carry that big piece of pink
satin and that vase. And I have only two pairs of slippers and one
fan. Ay, Cho-n-i-i-ta, look at those shawls! Mother of God, suppose
Valencia Menendez comes--"

"Do not weep on the silk and spoil what thou hast," called down
Chonita from the top step. "Thou shalt have all thou canst wear for a
year."

She reached the deck and stood panting and imperious before her
father. "All! All! I must have all!" she cried. "Never have they been
so fine, so rich."

"Holy Mary!" shrieked Don Guillermo. "Dost thou think I am made of
doubloons, that thou wouldst buy a whole ship's cargo? Thou shalt have
a quarter; no more,--not a yard!"

"I will have all!" And the stately daughter of the Iturbi y Moncadas
stamped her little foot upon the deck.

"A third,--not a yard more. And diamonds! Holy Heaven! There is
not gold enough in the Californias to feed the extravagance of the
Senorita Dona Chonita Iturbi y Moncada."

She managed to bend her body in spite of her burden, her eyes flashing
saucily ab