"Of course she rules Rafael just now, to a certain extent," conceded Angela, carelessly. "He sees the Church and half the town at her feet here; she is a novelty, and he sees everyone turn to look at her. But at San Juan she will find no one at her feet, and her churchmen will be far enough away. The padre there detests her; she stopped him from selling bricks from the cloister pillars."
"The padre and Doña Maria should make a strong team," observed Bryton. "The woman need be strong to win against them—is she?"
"How do I know? I've never spoken to her. She has nasty eyes. That's all I can remember of her."
"Nasty?"
"Oh, it is the expression. I saw them once, and she made me nervous. Perhaps it was because she divined that I was one of the 'accursed heretics.' I understand that is the way the lower order speak of Protestants!"
"But she cannot be quite of the lower order, can she? Her father was of the best Spanish and American blood ever joined on this coast, far above the Arteagas."
"Oh! So you also look up pedigrees here; I wonder why."
"It is a country where you hear of them without question," he returned, indifferently. "The people are always sparring among themselves and referring to their ancestors—if they dare. Doña Luisa was a pure-blood Spanish woman, but the Arteagas had a bad Indian and Mexican streak. She saw it develop in her own children, and it gave her a bad fright. She counted on this marriage bringing the last of them back to the old conservative manner of life."
"Ah!" She shrugged her shoulders contemptuously; "but you forget that Raquel, the present Señora Arteaga, has also a Mexican streak."
"No, I don't forget; but there are high class and low of every race. Noble Indians and high-class Mexicans have gone into history. The American makes a great mistake when he judges the high classes by the masses. In this land one has to dig out the facts of each individual line, if he wants to know the truth of a pedigree. But the lady from Mexico seems to have drawn her distinctions very closely, and realizing her own superiority, she dares dictate."