Before she could muster her startled and angry faculties for reply, before Estenega had finished speaking, in fact, Castro brought his open palm down on the table, his eyes blazing.

“Oh, execrable profanation!” he cried.  “Oh, unheard-of perfidy!  Is it possible that a man calling himself a Californian could give utterance to such sentiments?  Oh, abomination!  You would invite, welcome, uphold, the American adventurer?  You would tear apart the bosom of your country under pretense of doctoring its evils?  You would cast this fair gift of Almighty God at the feet of American swine?  Oh, Diego!  Diego!  This comes of the heretic books thou hast read.  It is better to have heart than brain.”

“True:  the palpitations do not last as long.  We have had proof which I need not recapitulate that to preserve California to itself it must be tied fast to Mexico, otherwise would it die of anarchy or fall a prey to the first invader.  So far so good.  But what has Mexico done for California?  Nothing; and she will do less.  She is a mother who has forgotten the child she put out to nurse.  England and France and Russia would do as little.  But the United States, young and ambitious, will give her greedy attention, and out of their greed will California’s good be wrought.  And although they sweep us from the earth, they will plant fruit where they found weeds.”

Don Jose pushed back his chair violently and left the table.  Estenega turned to Chonita and found her pallid, her nostrils tense, her eyes flashing.

“Traitor!” she articulated.  “I hate you!  And it was you—­you—­who kept my loyal brother from serving his country in the Departmental Junta.  He is as full of fire and patriotism as Castro; and yet you, whose blood is ice, could be a member of the Electoral College and defeat the election of a man who is as much an honor to his country as you are a shame.”

He smiled a little cruelly, but without anger or shame in his face.  “Senorita,” he said, “I defeated your brother because I did not believe him to be of any use to his country.  He would only have been in the way as a member of the Junta, and an older man wanted the place.  Your brother has Don Jose’s enthusiasm without his magnetism and remarkable executive power.  He is too young to have had experience, and has done neither reading nor thinking.  Therefore I did my best to defeat him.  Pardon my rudeness, senorita; ascribe it to revenge for calling me a traitor.”

“You—­you——­” she stammered, then bent her head over her plate, her Spanish dignity aghast at the threatening tears.  Her hand hung clinched at her side.  Diego took it in spite of resistance, and, opening the rigid fingers, bent his head beneath the board and kissed them.

“I believe you are somewhat of a woman, after all,” he said.

IV.

The party deserted the table for the garden, there to idle until evening should give them the dance.  All of the men and most of the women smoked cigaritos, the latter using the gold or silver holder, supporting it between the thumb and finger.  The high walls of the garden were covered with the delicate fragrant pink Castilian roses, and the girls plucked them and laid them in their hair.