"Art thou asking me how I like the enemy of my house? I hate him."

"If he goes to Santa Barbara with Alvarado this summer wilt thou ask
him to be thy guest?"

"Of course. The enmity has always been veiled with much courtesy; and
I would have him see that we know how to entertain."

I watched her covertly; I could detect no sign of interest. Presently
she took up the volume of Landor and read aloud to me, the stately
English sounding oddly with her Spanish accent.




VI.


At ten o'clock the large sala of the Governor's house was thronged
with guests, and the music of the flute, harp, and guitar floated
through the open windows: the musicians sat on the corridor. How
harmonious was the Monterey ball-room of that day!--the women in their
white gowns of every rich material, the men in white trousers, black
silk jackets, and low morocco shoes; no color except in the jewels
and the rich Southern faces. The bare ugly sala, from which the uglier
furniture had been removed, needed no ornaments with that moving
beauty; and even the coffee-colored, high-stomached old people were
picturesque. I wander through those deserted salas sometimes, and,
as the tears blister my eyes, imagination and memory people the cold