Chapter 21 Summary

Salvador gets his tailor, who has become his good friend, to help him buy a diamond for Lupe. The retail price is supposedly two thousand dollars, but Salvador buys it for four hundred. Later he finds out the man who sold him the ring is his tailor's brother.

When he shows it to his mother and they talk further, he is surprised to learn that she does not want Domingo to ask for Lupe's hand for him. His mother tells him that Domingo's girlfriend, Nellie, is married to someone else, and that she has left three small children to be with Domingo, and Dona Margarita does not want this action to be a part of Salvador's marriage. To make matters even worse, Salvador finds out that Domingo has ruined two barrels of whiskey, and has been drinking in plain view of the neighbors...