Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

and the officers made us take a pistol to our great
discomfort, as we were afraid it would go off and
hurt us. We visited the church and took a walk,
without a pistol, through picturesque roadways,
with steps cut in the coral rock. I cannot tell you
how European and mediaeval it was.
In the evening there was a banquet in the convento. The rooms were decorated in fresco, representing gardens and mountain scenery wonderfully
well done. The feature of the dinner was a great
centerpiece made of endless varieties of bottled and
brandied fruits, with fancy flasks of whiskies and
all kinds of liqueurs and bottles of strange appearance. I was prevailed upon by an insurrecto general to taste a curious dark liqueur, a liver tonic as
I found out later, to my horror. Don't you wonder
we are alive? But "die rather than hurt a principale's feelings " is my motto, and I live up to it.
If they were really waiters one would not mind refusing the deadly "dulce" and lukewarm champagne, but by refusing a " sigh of love " (a sweet
cake) from the hand of a wavering " amigo," one
might turn him into an " enemigo," while an insurrecto might be won over by drinking with him a
glass of liver tonic. I inquired afterwards about
the remarkable display of bottles on the table, and
learned that they had been lent for the occasion by
the saloon keeper and the apothecary in town, and
the uncorked stock was to be returned.
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