of such a thing!--and Captain Bunker, what with rage and drink, gone
off in a fit of delirium tremens, and locked up in his room! And the
Excelsior gone--the Lord knows where!"
"Gone!" repeated Miss Keene, hurrying on her clothes. "Impossible! What
does Father Esteban tell you? What does Dona Isabel say?"
"That's the most horrible part of it! Do you know those wretched idiots
believe it's some political revolution among ourselves, like their own
miserable government. I believe that baby Isabel thinks that King
George and Washington have something to do with it; at any rate, they're
anxious to know to what side you belong! So; for goodness' sake! if you
have to humor them, say we're all on the same side--I mean, don't you
and Mrs. Markham go against Miss Chubb and me."
Scarcely knowing whether to laugh or cry at Mrs. Brimmer's incoherent
statement, Miss Keene hastily finished dressing as the door flew open to
admit the impulsive Dona Isabel and her sister Juanita. The two Mexican
girls threw themselves in Miss Keene's arms, and then suddenly drew back
with a movement of bashful and diffident respect.
"Do, pray, ask them, for I daren't," whispered Mrs. Brimmer, trying
to clasp a mantilla around her, "how this thing is worn, and if they
haven't got something like a decent bonnet to lend me for a day or two?"
"The Senora has not then heard that her goods, and all the goods of
the Senores and Senoras, have been discovered safely put ashore at the
Embarcadero?"
"No?" said Mrs. Brimmer eagerly.
"Ah, yes!" responded Dona Isabel. "Since the Senora is not of the
revolutionary party."
Mrs. Brimmer cast a supplicatory look at Miss Keene, and hastily quitted
the room. Miss Keene would have as quickly followed her, but the young
Ramirez girls threw themselves again tragically upon her breast, and,
with a mysterious gesture of silence, whispered,--
"Fear nothing, Excellencia! We are yours--we will die for you, no matter
what Don Ramon, or the Comandante, or the Ayuntamiento, shall decide.
Trust us, little one!--pardon--Excellencia, we mean."
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