''Because, over and above his rent, he paid me five dollars to hold my tongue.'
''If I were to offer you ten to let it go, how would it be then?'
''Ten dollars!' replied my hostess, in a ruminating tone of voice.
''Yes, ten dollars.'
''I should feel it my duty to my fatherless children to speak,' said this excellent mother of the bereaved heirs of the defunct Lopez. 'Yes—holy Virgin, forgive me—but I should feel bound to speak.'
''It is a bargain, then; Señora, proceed.'
''Your neighbor, Señor,' replied my hostess, in a low voice, 'is a heretic—an Englishman.'
''Not an American?'
''English or American—what is the difference, any way? I tell you he is a heretic, and you know we Mexicans make no difference between those heathens—we call them all Inglez.''
'The fair Teresa, I may remark, had always taken me for one of her fellow-countrymen, as I spoke the language fluently, and had been thoroughly sun-burnt years before.