Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/164

 the wall, or on their individual sheepskins, listening in respectful silence to the tuning of the instruments.

Señor Apedaca, portly, and every inch a personage in the only derby hat in the county, moved about turning the three kerosene lamps to their very highest notch, flicking invisible dirt from the polished reflectors with his pocket handkerchief, and flirting water from a basin with his finger-tips upon spots which to his critical eye needed a trifle more, a mere suspicion of moisture to lay the dust, and all with a large and capable air, which made Doña Marianna rear back in pride.

Doña Marianna wore her famous filigree cross of silver and her justly celebrated gown of chintz, while the Señorita Perfecta Torres was prepared to struggle to retain her supremacy as the belle of Las Rubertas in the creation of green and yellow which first brought El Paso to local notice.

Nor was their best too good for the innumerable Fuentes, Ramons and Montejos who, with bracelets jingling and brass rings to their knuckles, presented a solid phalanx of