A STORY OF MEXICAN LIFE

VIII.

’My neighbor gazed at the stranger with bewilderment, and remained speechless.  There was, nevertheless, nothing in his outward mien to give rise to so much emotion.  He was a robust and rather handsome fellow, of about twenty-five, bold, swaggering, and free and easy in his deportment—­a perfect specimen of the race of half-breeds so common in Mexico.  His skin was swarthy, his features regular, and his beard luxuriant and soft as silk.  His eyes were large and black as sloes, his teeth small, regular, and white as ivory, and his whole countenance, when in repose, wore an expression which won confidence rather than excited distrust.  But when conversing, there was an indefinable craftiness in his smile, and a peculiar cunning in the twinkle of his eye, that often strikes the traveler in Mexico, as pervading all that class who are accustomed to making excursions into the interior.  His costume, covered with dust, and torn in many places, led me to infer that he had only just returned from some long journey.

’After waiting, with great politeness, for some few seconds, to allow Arthur time to address him, and finding he waited in vain, the Mexican opened the conversation: 

’’I fear your excellency will scold me for delaying so long on the road; but how could I help it?  I am more to be pitied than blamed—­I lost three horses—­at monte—­and if it had not been by good luck that the ace turned up when I staked my saddle and bridle, I should not be here even now; but the ace won; I bought a fresh horse—­and here I am.’

‘’What success?’ inquired Arthur, with a look of intense anxiety; ’did you bring any?’

‘’Certainly,’ replied Pepito, handing him very unconcernedly a small package; ’I brought more than you told me, and, in fact, I might have brought a mule-load if you had wanted so many.’

‘’Adele!’ cried Mr. Livermore, overcome with delight, as he rushed into my room, ‘Adele, he has found it!’

Pepito followed Arthur with his sharp eye, and on beholding Adele, asked me, in a low tone: 

‘’Who is that lady, Caballero?’

‘’I can not say; I myself never saw her until to-day,’ said I; and noticing his gaze riveted on her in apparent admiration, I added: 

‘’Do you think her pretty?’

’’Pretty!  Holy Virgin! she is lovely enough to make a man risk his salvation to win her.’

’Feeling that my presence might be one of those superfluities with which they would gratefully dispense, I was on the point of leaving, when there was a knock at the door.  Again Adele sought refuge in my room, and again Arthur advanced to the door: 

‘’Open, it is I,’ said a voice from the outside; ’I have come to inquire after my friend Pepito.’

‘’Senor,’ exclaimed Pepito, ‘that must be my compadre, Pedro.’