Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/197

Rh recollected the folly of explaining anything to a creature whom I did not know. Cn stepped out of the box, to walk amongst the crowd, at which various masks shewed great signs of joy, surrounding and shaking hands with him.

The boxes were filled with ladies, and the scene was very amusing. Señor M, whose box we occupied, ordered in cakes and wine, and about one o'clock we left the ball-room and returned home, one of our old soldiers acting as lackey. . ..

I paid a visit the other day, which merits to be recorded. It was to the rich Señora, whose first visit I had not yet returned. She was at home, and I was shewn into a very large drawing-room, where, to my surprise, I found the lamps, mirrors, &.c., covered with black crape, as in cases of mourning here. I concluded that some one of the family was dead, and that I had made a very ill-timed first visit. However, I sat down, when my eyes were instantly attracted by something awful, placed directly in front of the sofa where I sat. There were six chairs ranged together, and on these lay stretched out a figure, apparently a dead body, about six feet long, enveloped in a black cloth, the feet alone visible, from their pushing up the cloth. Oh horror! Here I sat, my eyes fixed upon this mysterious apparition, and lost in conjecture as to whose body it might be. The master of the house? He was very tall, and being in bad health might have died suddenly. My being received, argued nothing against this, since the first nine days after a death, the house is invariably crowded with friends and acquaintances, and the