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

UNOFFICIAL LETTERS OF

straight narrow skirt and a cotton jacket. She extended a hand in greeting, and our young host presented her with all due deference and courtesy as
a lady who had never learned Spanish. No one
seemed disturbed by her sudden appearance and
there was no attempt to keep her in the background,
but this dispenser of diamonds and dinners, for she
owned the house and all it contained, preferred to
superintend the kitchen maids and be presented to
her guests later. Finally, we left our hostesses after
many promises to return soon, and drove back to
the doctor's shack, through the grove of bananas and
palms. A heavy dew was gathering on its foliage
and the leaves glittered like polished silver. It was
like being in fairy land, to drive through the tropical forest under the full moon.
After settling ourselves for the night, and tired
out with our long dlay, what should turn up but
the band. It was maddening, and yet not wishing
to hurt the feelings of the gentlemen in white shirts
we endured the strains of "Just One Girl," " Whistling Rufus" and other choice selections for over an
hour. The doctor's wife, true to her mania for pacifying the natives, had the nerve to call out mill gracias
(a thousand thanks) as they went off. The doctor and
I hissed her. Then came an awful night. The nipa
hut was like a bamboo cage; it creaked and swayed
with the least breeze. The sides of the walls were
open for air, and visions of the bolo makers per66