Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/36

16 S. Gabriel, which I passed in the middle of that day. The bailiff or steward seemed to keep an open house for the benefit of travellers: a temporary meal was immediately provided; and, afterwards, a handsome supper in one of the upper apartments, at which the family attended. There was a great choice of rooms, and my bed was made up at a distance from the more inhabited part, at the end of a long suite; my servants were accommodated in a room at a little distance, but after the doubts and perplexities I was suffering under respecting the unaccountable abstraction of the doubloons, I hardly knew whether to consider myself the safer for their company. The under-servant had been one of the grooms at San Cosme, a fine athletic fellow, but exceedingly demure and almost stupid in his demeanour; he had so often and so anxiously requested of the Major Domo permission to accompany me, that I at last assented. I thought, this evening, on my retiring to rest, that he evinced something