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!"