Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/352

332 not why,) on his good fortune. The anxious mother invited them all to a grand entertainment in the evening; the additional preparations for which increased the occupations of the domestics who were already all fully employed. I ordered a fresh quantity of champaign to do honour to the occasion: it arrived safely at the house, but although it did not disappear in the unwelcome manner as did a former lot, it underwent a very unpleasant transmigration;—for it was almost all of it made up into very sweet punch. The supper was profuse and excellent: about seventy persons sat down in the comedor, which was as many as could be accommodated, and the rest, consisting of all the young people, had formed themselves into groups on the floors of the other apartments, where they regaled themselves in gipsy fashion. The shouts of laughter and merriment ill accorded with the state dignity of the grand supper table. I was unfortunately placed at the head of it, and had