Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/42

18 you!" Such were at first the only replies. Neither surprised nor despairing, however, I had recourse to an infallible remedy in the shape of a peso (dollar), with which I offered to satisfy mine host for his trouble. The sight of the coin elicited an avaricious twinkle from the faded eyes of Don Concho; and after a moment's pondering, and such a minute questioning as reminded me of the custom-house, he bade my moso take the ponies to an out-building, and prepared to submit his only spare apartment, as he said, to my scrutiny.

Numbers seven, eight, nine, and ten,—number one began, I supposed, at the sheds outside. Two rooms belonged to a holy "padre," who only occupied them occasionally; another was hired by a very respectable old gentleman, known as the "alcalde;" a third led to the entresol, or portion occupied by the domestics; and a fourth was the entrance to his own.

At length we stopped before the door which opened upon his "spare room;" which, unlike the others, was upon the ground-floor, and almost adjoining an entrance to the court-yard. Such a room! Yet, for a similar tenement, a traveller in Mexico has often to be