Chapter 14 Summary

The festival continues in the plaza of the hacienda. Arroyo has taken Harriet to the ballroom and made her dance with him. As she does so, she keeps her composure by daydreaming that she is in Washington dancing with her father. She senses the smells of Washington, D.C. The vines and overwhelming jungle-like plants bring an odor of slightly overripe fruit, if not outright decay. She imagines the smell of an overworked Negress. This is how Arroyo smells to her.

Tomas Arroyo imagines that he is a child, once again at the hacienda, but dancing with his mother, who should have been the legitimate wife of the owner. She is foreign, well dressed and clean. He smells this on Harriet. He remembers that he had hoped that the owner of the hacienda, who was his father, would recognize him as his son...