"Well, my dear, positively she didn't have any stockings on--only
slippers, and she received us that way. Belle and I had all we could
do not to laugh, and I wondered if she could be so poor that she
couldn't afford them, though her, house, was beautiful, and the
plaza, with its fountain and flowers, a perfect dream.

"But Inez told me that often even the well-to-do Spanish ladies here
don't wear stockings, unless they go to church or to a dance. Even
then they don't put them on, sometimes, until just before they go
into the church. We saw one, riding in on a donkey. She stopped
just outside the church, and put on her stockings as calmly as though
they were gloves."

"Fancy!" cried Cora.

"Then you aren't going to follow that fashion?" asked Belle.

"No, indeed!" exclaimed the plump Bess, as she carefully inspected
the other stocking for a possible worn place. She did not find it,
and sighed in content.

"Aren't you going to finish that lace, Cora?" asked Belle.

"Not now, at any rate. I just can't sit here and--wait! I want to
be doing something."

"But there's nothing to do, dear," objected Belle. "We can't do
anything but wait for news of them. And no news is always good news,
you know."