Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/193

Rh Brainerd murmured an appropriate response. Small talk ensued. Then after suitable interval Doña Cazadero raised her voice.

"Juan!" she called.

The Cazadero footman entered bearing packages which, at a sign, he laid on the floor and began to unwrap. Brainerd watched the leisurely performance with a curiosity that changed to bewilderment as he saw what the packages contained.

"They are very pretty," observed Doña Cazadero calmly.

"They seem so," replied Brainerd, "but what" "Daphne she go to this ball of Señor Boyd? No? Eet is her first ball: no? Well, this gown is the present of the Cazadero for that fiesta."

Brainerd stiffened.

"It is a very kind thought, Doña Cazadero, but I cannot permit" "Permit: what is that word?" Doña Cazadero interrupted. "But you do not understand. We are rancheros both; no? We are neighbours; no? It is the custom of the Espanish peoples to make the gift at thees first fiesta of a young girl. Always we do that. For that we keep many thing." She laughed, shaking her plump form all over. "You have no idea the many thing: in boxes, chests. It is bad luck to buy the gift. It must be of the family possession. Now theese dress," she prattled on, "eet is very old. In old time there ees a ship come in, name of The Pilgrim, and she bring very nice things—diamonds, dresses, combs, mantillas, all the thing Espanish people want. And the Espanish people send down the eskin of cow—very many—and they mak' the trade. There was no—what—you—call—wharf. You go through the wave in a boat. I remember my mother tell me how the young Yankee sailor man squeeze her little bit when he carry her through the wave to the boat!" She laughed in a jolly fashion. "So we get all the thing: and we put these away in the chest and the box."

"But this must be very valuable: priceless!" protested Brainerd.

"Oh, yes, very valuable," agreed Doña Cazadero, calmly. "You can not buy heem. They do not mak' heem now. That,"