by the little girls, for what particular reason I had not yet been able to discover, though I afterwards did. It is true he romped with them like a boy, made funny gestures, wry faces and odd noises, played tricks upon themselves as well as upon their cards, and, in short, proved himself a good-natured man and an active friend of the family. In the evening, a large party dropped in: they had heard, no doubt, of the arrival of an English stranger; and, as this was an event which, like the flowering of one of their nopals in England, happens only once in a century, their curiosity, if such was the motive of the visit, was very pardonable.
The saloon in which the company were assembled was a large room having a door at one end into the street, at the other, an entrance into the sleeping rooms, and, in the centre, leading to the court yard, another large folding door. They were all three open, so that there was plenty of air, though the currents, to which the tenants
