Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/320

314 charming descriptions of the people, appeared in the Century Magazine for 1881-82. She says: "I had fallen into that helpless attitude toward the outer world which is like a spell over the women of the country. The return of the engineers and the discussion of plans for our homeward journey on horseback broke up the dream—one last drive on the paseo in the splendor of the low sunset light, then a bustle of packing, and talk of saddles and horses, servants for the road, and of steamer days and telegrams, last calls and a sense of multiplied obligations, which fate might never permit us fitly to recognize. When the railroad is completed, and the tides of travel ebb to and fro, if our friends of Casa G—— are among those northward bound, may they find as gracious and courteous a welcome as they gave the strangers within their gates."

The closing wish finds a hearty echo in the breasts of two other American women who gratefully add their heartfelt testimony to the kindness and hospitality of the dwellers in that historic city. Just four years after Mrs. Foote's visit, Madame de C—— and myself bade our entertainers there a warm, and sad adios.

Our two weeks' vacation had drawn to a close. At the hour when the mellow chimes of the grand cathedral were calling to matins, when the sound of bells far away in Indian villages fell softly on the newly awakened senses, the military responding with drum and bugle-call, we bade adieu to this delightful mediæval city and its interesting inhabitants, and returned with mental and physical energies renewed to our complex nineteenth century life and its manifold duties.