Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/353

CH. XXIII.] to do the aimable with jewelled dowagers and men of consideration:—Colman, I think, says it is dull though very dignified to sit under laurels; and I confess, I would willingly have exchanged my position for a chance-seat in any of the other apartments. I had promised myself a very pleasant evening, but found it a very dull one.

When the company had retired, about one o'clock in the morning, an hour unprecedentedly late for Guatemalian festivities, I took the liberty of complaining to one of the companions of my little friend, Doña Maria, that she had made a very unpleasant division of the company, by taking all the cheerful portion of it to herself; when she playfully replied that she presumed Doña Maria thought that she and her companions would have been awed by the presence of a Gran Señor.

By six o'clock the next morning I was awakened with a noise occasioned by the arrieros who were engaged in loading the