Florence nodded.
“He has the best equipped library in the city,” continued the doctor, “and you can dig into the past to your heart’s content, Miss Jo.”
“That’ll be wonderful!” cried Jo Ann excitedly. “I know I’ll enjoy meeting him and seeing his library. I adore books—especially about old historic buildings.”
As they rose from the table Peggy remarked, “Jo and I want to run across the Plaza to buy some postcards to send home. Do you want to go with us, Florence?”
Florence and her father exchanged smiling glances as she replied, “You can’t buy postcards now—the stores close for an hour or two in the middle of the day.”
“Oh, I forgot I’m in Mexico,” laughed Peggy.
“In tropical countries it’s the custom to take a siesta after lunch,” Dr. Blackwell explained. “People sleep in the hottest part of the day and do their work in the cool of the evening. It’s a very good custom, too, since the sun has a tendency to cause fever if one is in it too much.”
On hearing this the girls meekly followed Florence to their room, and when she removed her dress and shoes and dropped down on the bed, they followed her example.
“How still it is!” thought Jo Ann. Not a sound floated up from the street below; not a leaf stirred on the trees in the park across the way. Even nature seemed to be sleeping, so deep, so intense was the stillness.
Florence, from habit, was soon sound asleep. The other two girls whispered quietly for a while; then Peggy’s eyelids drooped, and she, too, succumbed to the restful quiet.