Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/284

278 is from this fact that he assumes the unromantic appellation of haciendo el oso (playing the bear). He may also play the bear on horseback, and his "ladye faire" knows by intuition when he will pass, and, securely screened from public gaze remains behind the curtain on the balcony and merely shows her head or salutes him with her finger-tips. She goes to church or on the plaza, sure that he is not far away, and though they do not speak, a glance or smile each day is worth a life-time. But frequently tiny billets doux find their way to the angel upstairs, by means of strings, and the family is none the wiser.



I remember to have seen one young man "playing the bear" until my deepest sympathies were enlisted in his behalf. Day by day he repaired to the same spot, on the corner of the street opposite my window, at No. 6 la Primera de la Providencia. For months the trying business had gone on, until he was reduced to a mere skeleton, and his hollow eyes had that expectant expression which marks the victim of love in Mexico. So