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

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

stand it no longer, and, much to the disapproval of
the guard, I began to laugh. At once a magic
change came over the company, and my laughter
was reflected in their faces; the sniveling of the
bride ceased, and she raised two very big black eyes
to my face, while Luis, taking my levity for consent,
began to shower me with mil gracias. The other
Filipinos and the Chinamen had come to assist at
the negotiations, for in these patriarchal households
all the servants participate in everything of interest,
and Lai Ting sagely remarked: "She no mush
tlouble, velly small girl."
The barrier is now down, and the number of
parientes will gradually increase. The term parientes will, moreover, be liberally construed like Chinese "cousin," and will include anyone without a
place to live. I shall now expect Hieronomo and
Esteban, who are respectively sixteen and fourteen,
to take wives unto themselves. Luis assured me
that his bride was his real wife, and that it cost him
ten pesos to get married. I suspect Lai Ting's approval was not altogether disinterested, for I saw
Anna, the new wife, peeling potatoes for the cook
this morning; no doubt he gives her scraps from
the kitchen in return. I persuaded el Sefior it was
narrow-minded to force our customs on these people, where the principles of government were not
involved, and that Luis is the only coachman who
can manage our black horses. They kick everyone
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