The President asked me to go out on the balcony; I was the only lady of the American Embassy present, and I stood there for a few minutes between him and Madero and looked down upon those thousands of upturned faces. I felt the thrill of the crowd. Nameless emanations of their strange psychology reached me. But also I was sad, thinking of the impossible which has been promised them.
Madero was very silent, but his hands twitched nervously as he gazed out over that human mass he had come to save. I felt how diverse our thoughts as we stood looking down on the faces, on that forest of peaked hats, on police riding down the little avenues which traced themselves between the crowd. Everything was orderly. I think Gustave Le Bon could have added another chapter to La Psychologie des Foules.
X
The uncertainty of Spanish adverbs—Planchette and the destiny of the state—Madame Bonilla's watery garden-party—De la Barra's "moderation committee"—Madero's "reform platform"
September 21st.
To-day we go for a farewell lunch at the Austrian chargé's, who is leaving almost immediately. His cousin, the new Austrian minister, Riedl von Riedenau, and his American wife, have arrived and are to have his house.
I have been out very little lately—only to a dinner at Hohler's and a luncheon at the Embassy. This is not a climate where foreigners can put screws on themselves with impunity. The mornings are indescribably clear-washed, brilliant, radiant, but the trouble about all this beauty is that it is too high. Very few resist it à la longue.
I have been reading C. F. Lummis's Spanish Pioneers—a noble picture of their romantic achievements. I am sending it. Please keep it with my other Mexicana. I am also sending Howard's End, this last a history of a life, to fill a dark afternoon.
I hear Elim, who is picking up a lot of Spanish, remonstrating with Elena, saying, "No mañana, orita!"[13] His infant soul has perceived the full significance of the fatal word mañana. Orita, I have discovered, is also apt to be followed by a maddening wait; and, in general, Spanish adverbs of time awaken uneasiness.
September 23d.