THE MEXICAN GENERAL
183
"I couldn't help it Felipe, I had to wait to the last. It's their
fault; I would have been ready long ago."
"That isn't so, you're just slower than we are. We started
together," said Gloria.
"Never mind, never mind whose fault it is. Don't spend so
much time on your hair,
Veracruzana,
we'll leave you behind."
"I'm coming, wait!" cried Maria stooping to the mirror with
her combs. "What did you do with my hairpins?" Gloria pow–
dered her narrow throat from chin to base and looking down with
a serious expression brushed the fallen specks of powder from her
black dress.
"Ready?" asked the General.
They were ready.
The dining room was also the bar.
It
was very crowded and
no1sy.
"Why do the Americans talk so loudly; they must be nearly
deaf; they can't hear each other," laughed Eulalia. "Isn't that so
Felipe?"
"They're a low class of Americans."
"I don't like the sound of it," said Gloria.
"Citron speaks it very well," said Maria.
"Yes, he's a great success with it," the General said. The
waiter was laying a fresh cloth. "Bring us some vermouth," he
told him.
"I want beer," said Maria,
"Carta Blanca."
"Our little Negress is becoming a drunkard."
"Oh, Felipe!" the girls screamed.
"It's true," he said with a light smile. "When I brought her
orne from the Reforma the other night she was absolutely drunk."
"Oh no, I wasn't."
"All the
Veracruzanas
are like that, they love very much
o drink."
"There are Citron and Paco sitting over there," said Eulalia.
The drinks came and the General poured them. "For you,
or you, for me," he said as the amber vermouth ran to the point
f each stem. "And for the
Veracruzana,
the drunkard, beer." He
ave a little slap to the cork but nothing like joviality was to be
en in his long, austere face, and his lips moved very little when
