"I knew Señorita Galindo was in love with Don Abelardo Peralta, and that he was not with her. When she pinched my arm for pulling her hair as I combed it, I told her that Señor Peralta was in love with a lady in Monterey, Señora Valentino."
"What did the Señorita Galindo say to that?"
"She pinched my arm more, and boxed my ears till I cried; then sent me to Padre Osuna all covered with lies." Pepita spat at the remembrance.
The women turned to their looms again. Marta walked around examining their work, admonishing, encouraging or assisting.
"Draw the threads tighter, Joséfa. Pull them equally, not one looser than the others. Calvia, use sense; your weave is uneven."
Passing her own loom she said: "This is a design after which many blankets were made for Constancia Alvarado, she who married Señor Mendoza. The señor's hair, then, was as black as any of yours. Don Marcel Hernandez has ordered six of each of these patterns. I shouldn't wonder if it means his daughter is going to marry. My man went to Spain once with Señor Hernandez, to bring back horses.
"Tula, hasten, thy loom moves slowly, as if tired. Wait till noon before resting. Very good, Encarnacion; the best you've done. And thou, too, Jesusa."
As the matrona came to Pepita's side she said in low voice: "Girl, worry thou not. Soon another takes thy loom and thou goest to service with the Lady Carmelita, without doubt. The padre will make recommend of thee; but remember his words in last Sunday's sermon: 'Have a care as to what thou seest, what thou hearest, and what thou sayest.'"
"I am not the only one that talks too much."
Marta recalled something to be done inside the house and went away, telling the weavers to be industrious during her absence.