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Show 9 !9i "Bett&ecn LocJe and D-ttty. J The deep, bright bluenesa of a Mexican sky nm i hent low over its favored children, as if it would H A sllut away from them, on this one day, every shad 9 jMf 1 ow of seriousness or care, and must have been HOT Tj gratified by the gorgeous pageant the Plaza Zoca- BSr ! lo flashed back in return. Since early dawn the BB vendors from the hill districts had been pouring Bfi l into the city, and tiny booths, like mushrooms, had 9B i been springing up all over the market quarter. 9B ,j Long before the first sleepy eyes in the town had 9B i begun to open, the Indian had started on his Jour- 9 J ' ney to dispose of his wares as his Toltec and Az- 9 ij 1 1 tec ancestors had done a thousand years before. B t l , For tills was the great feast-day of the sprlng- B it ' '' time, and it is only on such a day the variegated B ! City of Mexico is seen in all its glory. It is then H j the market place is the most brilliant scene the B "' all-beholding sun looks down upon in all his fl i course. Out of doors, the brilliancy of the color- !BB ij I ings is somewhat tempered by the atmosphere, BB j', but even so the brain is assailed by such rude ! blasts of color as almost to make it reel. Gay w awnings, bright rebozos, many-hued serapes, em- . ,. , broideries, spangles, flowers, deep sky, burning B h suns, brilliant verdure, all conspire to intoxicate B yi the eye ,A-n the ranc Primary hues of their B j I , chosen colorings"Suggest, to the thoughtful, some- H i thing of the primitive nature of the Children of Bn Sunshine. 9 'I ; . And yet, amid all this exterior gladness, hearts ii were aching, eyes were weeping, hopes were fall- , ing in the stately old house of Cardenas. The m e'lfi warmth of the sunshine and the brightness of the BB r i skies could not penetrate the gloom in the heart ( 9 Hi of ( Dolores. Her great dark eyes looked out on an H HI altogether bleak and cheerless world. Hl III The great old house of the Cardenas family iy had been the home of generations of beautiful i, Cardenas daughters from time immemorable. H jjr Since the first Senorita Dolores, the women of this Hj ,jF house had held their stately heads at the pre- H 1 ' scribed angle, had felt the weight of dignity of Hj h belonging 'to the oldest family in Mexico, had pre- i served the family feuds and friendships unques- m tionably, had dutifully married the suitor chosen by their parents; and had lived, died, and been j gathered to their fathers, "with never a thought V of revolt against the family traditions. ; But Dolores, the youngest of the family, the ij erstwhile peted darling of the household, with the jj blood of such an ancestry in her veins, the ex- f ample of countless progenitors before her eyes, U now arose in open revolt against every tradition H of the family. H ' The assembled hosts stood aghast at this un- P exampled waywardness, and declared she was not J! ' worthy to bear the sacred name of Cardenas. The n suitor they had chosen for her was, to the mind H j II of the family, in '6very way a worthy alliance for a 9 f - Cardenas, and, as they argued, if he pleased them, H fl j why should he not please her? Miguel, who since H If j the death of the old senor, his father, had taken H ifj the reinsas-the-head of the family, and no thought H kg of being1 overridden by a slip of a girl; but the H If old senora, when she realized her daughter's will H was as inflexible as her own, was almost at the H ijL point of being lenient. H M Now, however, when it was discovered that H Dolores Cardenas had defied them all not be- H 'g cause she was too young to marry or had any tan- H m gible objection to the choice of her family, but B l ' because she had clandestinely met, loved and B B pledged herself to an American, a miserable up- B M ' start Gringo it was decided she should be prompt- ' S ly sent into a convent to take the veil. B 'm As a consequence, this beautiful holiday world B ) I was a bleak and cheerless place today for the lit- HB tie Senorita Dolores. As she stood at the window, seeing nothing but the horror of convent walls closing in upon her, she clutched within her hand her only hope, a tiny, crumpled scrap of paper, on which sho read over and over: "Go straight to the Plaza Zocalo. I will know you under any disguise if you will wear a white cross on your shoulder. I will wait for" you at the potery stall of old Pancha. Then Mexico adlos!" The girl watched the shadows settling down over the festive city, and summoned all her courage cour-age for this fateful step. As she ' looked about her, she felt the very walls that had sheltered so many dutiful Cardenas daughters must cry out against her, but what else could she do? The old Bishop of Arezzo, the family confessor, was holding a solemn conclave in the room below with Miguel and the senora. So, slipping into her disguise, she waited for the noises of the household house-hold to settle dovTh into a twilight quiet. "The only safeguard is a convent," she heard her brother saying as she crept toward the half-open half-open door. But as they sat on calmly deliberating upon her fate, little did they dream that at that moment, that very instant, not three yards from them, the little rebel was stealing past them out into the world. Once, in the course of their discussion, something had caused the old senora to stop and listen. Was it a door creaking on- a rusty hinge, she asked herself, or a rat scampering through the thick adobe wall? On the other side of the partition the little fugitive stood breathless. The noise was not repeated, however, so the voice of the senora arose again and droned on in its argument argu-ment as to the respective merits of the different sisterhoods. The fugitive daughter wondered if these old souls, who could dispose so calmly of another life, had forgotten the joys of the heyday of their own youth, or if the good rich blood had ever caroused through their veins as hers did now. She crushed her toy basket close to her heart to still the tumult tu-mult of its beating for fear its loud knocking must arouse the house. The shadows had -wrapped the city in a merciful merci-ful monotone of gray as Bhe slipped out the door, under the armorial bearings of the house of Car- M denas, whose name she was no longer to bear. M Never before had she been out in the street alone. M Old Carmela had always been as close as her M shadow; but, as she remembered she was no long- jH er herself, but for the nonce a mere peon toy- H vendor, she held her basket close, and turned to- M ward the plaza. The tide of travel was still set in M that direction, for the evening was the gayest time H of all. So, fallfng in with the throng, she was soon H an insignificant atom in the crowd. B Arrived upon the plaza, the eyes of the Senor- H ita Cardenas widened with excitement. This was B the first time in her life she had mingled so close- B ly with the market place rabble. The haggling of B the buyers, the soliciting of the vendors, the babel B of tongues, the yelping of the dogs, the curious- B looking foreigners, made up as strange a sight B to the carefully brought up little Spanish girl as to B Clio rankest outsider. Her cheeks glowed and her B eyes burned with the thrill of novelty, and, for- B getting about her toys, she stood lost in wonder B at the life about her. The plaza with its people, B its booths, Its groups of bull fighters, flower girls, 3 and grandees, all postling shoulders in good na- JH tured haste, might be a full-dress rehearsal of B "Carmen," she thought. B At every step deeper into the crowd her safety B became surer. She began to wonder what would jB happen at home when they discovered her flight. fl She smiled 'to herself at the consternation that H wourd ensue when, after deciding finally upon B which convent she should enter, they found their H bird had flowli. B Just then, a rude party of Mexicans youths, B seeing the smiling little toy vendor, stopped with B a familiar jest and tried to talk with her. Now, fl for the first time, she realized her forlorn position. B A sudden fear seized her that she might in some B way miss Randol in all this great crowd. Then a B new fear clutched her heart. What if, after count- B ing tne danger her abduction would bring upon his 9 head, he had failed her! B The next instant she banished the thought, B for straight beyond, towering above the crowd, B she saw the tall erect figure of Randol jostling H everybody out of his way in his haste to reach B the stall of old Pancha in time. The girl watched B him with already the pride of possesison. How B different he was from the other men she saw! H How handsome and fine! The man's keen eyes H were scanning every face that passed. Purpose- H ly, she drew into a corner to watch him and real- S ize the fact that it was for her his eyes were so B intent and his face so eager. She could wait and H prolong the joy of the coming moment, for when B they did meet it would be for always. H As she Corned her eyes for an instant to follow H the surging crowd, she caught, or fancied she S caught, a sight of Miguel's retreating figure. Was S it possible her escape had already been discov- H ered, she wondered. There was no doubt in her B mind as to the measures he would take when he H found she would not return home with him. To H Miguel the honor of his house was dearer than H anything in the world. He would not scruple H to kill this Gringo to preserve his family escutch- H eon from a blot. And well his sister knew that B when his pride and anger met, there would be no fl quarter. With this thought the little vendor shrank deeper into the shadow. When her flight was dis- covered there would do q y one explanation of it. SB The whole city would be aroused in an instant, H and their escape made impossible: Randol, in his 9 straightforwardness and self-confidence, could not 9 be made to realize their danger. But as the little 9 peon vendor stood alone and unbefriended in this B great city, she felt the force of her helplessness B against her brother's power. And her lover! As fl Bhe looked at him she felt the danger she had B H brought upon him with a new poignancy. Why H should she let him risk his life for her? H Randol, meanwhile, stalked up and down in H front of the stall, growing restless and impatient. B Suddenly, as if drawn by the intensity of her long s' ing, he turned and walked straight toward her. B With an instinctive cry of joy she turned to spring B toward him. But the next instant the cry was B stifled. Instead, she flattened herself against the ? wall and held her breath. The white cross she had pinned upon her shoulder in such ecstacy was I turned to the shallow and her rebozo drawn close about her face. I Straight on he came. Crouching against the i wall, she waited. He brushed so near she almost felt his breath upon her cheek. She clasped her i hands tight over her heart and dug her nails so deep into her palms the blood came to the surface sur-face in tiny crescent-shaped gashes. But she 1 made no sound. Her life was of no great consequence, she told herself, but Randol was dearer to her than a thousand lives. She could not let him risk iim-' iim-' self so recklessly for her. As Randol, disappointed and baffled, reached the corner, the lights flared in his face and she saw the eagerness in his eyes had given place to , suspicion. He must think her false! He who had believed so implicity in her faith that he had i gladly risked everything for her, would now think she had put her family pride above her love. The gay holiday throng surged around her. Girls with glowing eyes looked up Into the faces smiling above them, happy voices rang in her ears, passing singers trolled gay love-songs, while the forlorn little toy-vendor stood motionless motion-less in her corner. 1 Would he go? Had he given her up? She ! strained her eyes after him as he mingled with the crowd. Perhaps he did not care so much after all! No, he was coming back! If she could only tell him she was true, she thought. ' If he 'could know all the long years that were to follow that she had failed him only to save him, then he would think kindly of the nun in the Spanish convent. He was again almost within reach, peering, searching, wondering. She could stand it no longer. lon-ger. Dropping her basket quietly to the ground the piteous little creature turned and fled. When Randol reached the angle of the wall where the shadows grew deep and thick, he looked daiefully, but found it empty. Back through the streets the little peon fled, alone. No one tried to speak to her, for every eye was filled with the lights and pleasures in the plaza beyond. She reached the frowning house she had so lately left forever, and found it still in darkness. It was early yet, but she had lived out all the joys and sorrow's of her life in this one hour. She slipped quietly around to the servants' entrance, then into the great hall. The door was still half open, and the bishop's voice was still explaining to the senora the penance her daughter would have to go through before she could enter the sisterhood. sis-terhood. Again the old senora thought she heard an unusual un-usual sound in the hall. Was it a door creaking on a rusty hinge, sne asked herself, or a rat scampering through the old adobe wall? Again the little figure on the other side of the partition stopped and held her breath till the voices took up their argument. When at last the unsuspecting senora came to Dolores' room, and said, sternly, "My daughter, we have decided," the little senorlta meekly acquiesced ac-quiesced like a worthy Cardenas. Marguerite Stabler, in The Argonaut. |