They Had Met In Buenos Ayres When In
Their Bloom, At The Most Emotional Period Of Life, And In Spite
Of
opposition from her people and of the tremendous difficulties in the
way of a union between one of the
Faith and a heretic in those
religious days, they were eventually made man and wife. As a girl she
had been beautiful; now, aged about forty, she was only fat - a large
fat woman, with an extremely white skin, raven-black hair and
eyebrows, and velvet-black eyes. That was Dona Mercedes as I knew her.
She did no work in the house, and never went for a walk or a ride on
horseback: she spent her time in an easy-chair, always well dressed,
and in warm weather always with a fan in her hand. I can hear the
rattle of that fan now as she played with it, producing a succession
of graceful waving motions and rhythmic sounds as an accompaniment to
the endless torrent of small talk which she poured out; for she was an
exceedingly voluble person, and to assist in making the conversation
more lively there were always two or three screaming parrots on their
perches near her. She also liked to be surrounded by all the other
females in the house, her two daughters and the indoor servants, four
or five in number, all full-blooded negresses, black but comely, fat,
pleasant-looking, laughing young and middle-aged women, all as a rule
dressed in white.
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