Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/281

Rh just described had sufficient time to wear away, my attention was attracted by a richly dressed lady promenading a fashionable quarter of the town, and leading a little boy by the hand, both followed by a well-attired domestic. The child wore a light blue mantilla, of the same fashion as the lady's, closely drawn around his face; beautiful locks of light brown hair clustered upon his shoulders, and there was something very interesting in his slight and graceful figure. As my way lay in the same direction, therefore, my curiosity led me to notice them still more attentively. They stopped from time to time to look at the shops and stores; but I had no opportunity of observing the concealed face of the little boy, until the lady at length entered a jeweller's shop, leaving the child outside in the care of the servant. As I drew near, the little fellow somewhat impatiently threw off the mantilla from his head for a minute, to see the glittering trinkets; and I turned towards him to look in his face. There was no face!—it was a miniature reproduction of the hideous, formless blank which had so lately haunted me. The skin had the same scorched and bleared appearance; the features were obliterated in