phole
expanded, and the outlines of a very pretty and very malicious little
face were displayed before me. The end of the scarf was adroitly
removed from the left shoulder; and a nude, plump arm, ending in a bunch
of small jewelled fingers, hung carelessly down.

I am tolerably bashful; but at the sight of this tempting partner, I
could hold in no longer, and bending towards her, I said in my best
Spanish, "Do me the favour, miss, to waltz with me."

The wicked little manola first held down her head and blushed; then,
raising the long fringes of her eyes, looked up again, and wits a voice
as sweet as that of a canary-bird, replied--

"Con gusto, senor." (With pleasure, sir.)

"Nos vamos!" cried I, elated with my triumph; and pairing off with my
brilliant partner, we were soon whirling about in the mazy.

We returned to our seats again, and after refreshing with a glass of
Albuquerque, a sponge-cake, and a husk cigarette, again took the floor.
This pleasurable programme we repeated some half-dozen times, only
varying the dance from waltz to polka, for my manola danced the polka as
if she had been a born Bohemian.

On one of my fingers was a fifty-dollar diamond, which my partner seemed
to think was _muy buenito_. As her igneous eyes softened my heart, and
the champagne was producing a similar effect upon my head, I began to
speculate on the propriety of transferring the diamond from the smallest
of my fingers to the largest of hers, which it would, no doubt, have
fitted exactly. All at once I became conscious of being under the
surveillance of a large and very fierce-looking lepero, a regular
pelado, who followed us with his eyes, and sometimes _in persona_, to
every part of the room. The expression of his swarth face was a mixture
of jealousy and vengeance, which my partner noticed, but, as I thought,
took no pains to soften down.

"Who is he?" I whispered, as the man swung past us in his chequered
serape.

"Esta mi marido, senor," (It is my husband, sir), was the cool reply.

I pushed the ring close up to the root of my finger, shutting my hand
upon it tight as a vice.

"Vamos a tomar otra copita!" (Let us take another glass of wine!) said
I, resolving to bid my pretty poblana, as soon as possible, a
good-night.

The Taos whisky had by this time produced its effect upon the dancers.
The trappers and teamsters had become noisy and riotous. The leperos,
who now half-filled the room, stimulated by wi