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Updated: June 21, 2025
"What news has the wash-tub mail to-day?" asked the girl, with an attempt at lightness. "Did an enemy invade the South this morning, and have you heard it already, as when General Kearney came? Is General Castro still in Baja California, or has he fled to Mexico? Has Doña Prudencia Iturbi y Moncada given a ball this week at Santa Barbara? Have Don Diego and Doña Chonita ?"
You never will meet another man like Diego Estenega. Do not cast him lightly aside." "Do I understand," said Chonita, in a perfectly unmoved voice, "that you are counseling me to marry an Estenega and the man who would send me to Hell hereafter? Do you forget my vow?" I came to myself with a shock. In the enthusiasm of my defense I had forgotten the situation.
"Thou must wear long, long trains now, my Prudencia, and be as stately as Chonita." "Ay!" exclaimed Prudencia. Did not every gown already made have a train longer than herself? "Thou needst never wear a mended stocking with all these to last thee for years," said another: never had silk stockings been brought to the Californias in sufficient plenty for the dancing feet of its daughters.
How dost thou like my friend, Chonita?" "Art thou asking me how I like the enemy of my house? I hate him." "If he goes to Santa Barbara with Alvarado this summer wilt thou ask him to be thy guest?" "Of course. The enmity has always been veiled with much courtesy; and I would have him see that we know how to entertain." I watched her covertly; I could detect no sign of interest.
Chonita alone wore a string of black pearls. I never saw her without it. Doña Martina took little part in the talk and laughter, and after a time slipped away, motioning to Chonita to take her place. The conversation turned upon war and politics, and in its course Estenega, looking from Chonita to Castro with a smile of good-natured irony said,
Prudencia began to cry. Then, for the moment, Chonita was forgotten. Two horses galloped into the court-yard. "Reinaldo!" The door had but an inside knob: Don Guillermo threw it open as a young man sprang up the three steps of the corridor, followed by a little man who carefully picked his way. "Yes, I am here, my father, my mother, my sister, my Prudencia! Ay, Eustaquia, thou too."
"Well, you know Chonita better since that dance," I said to him. "Polar stars are not unlikely to have volcanoes. Better let the deeps alone, my friend; the lava might scorch you badly. Women of complex natures are interesting studies, but dangerous to love. They wear the nerves to a point, and the tired brain and heart turn gratefully to the crystalline, idle-minded woman.
Even Estenega's face darkened: the traditions planted in plastic youth arose and rebelled at the desecration. "Some drunken sailors," he said. "There do you see that?" A craft rounded Point Lobos. "Pirates!" "Holy Mary!" exclaimed Chonita. "Let down your hair," he said, peremptorily; "and follow all that I suggest. We will drive them out." She obeyed him without question, excited and interested.
Estenega wrote to Chonita again by the ship that left during his brief stay in the capital, and it was his intention to go directly to Santa Barbara upon arriving in California. But when he landed in Monterey disinfected and careless as of old he learned that she was about to start, perhaps already had done so, for Fort Ross, to pay a visit to the Rotscheffs.
The pirates had fled and were seen no more; but their abrupt retreat, as described by Chonita, continued to be an exciting topic of discussion. There were few of us who did not openly or secretly approve of Estenega's Jesuitism and admire the nimbleness of his mind. The clergy did not express itself.
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