s she had lost all her mirth and good
humor. "So there are people who are not happy," she murmured. Arriving
at her door, she felt her sadness increase when her fiance declined
to go in, excusing himself on the plea of necessity. Maria Clara went
upstairs thinking what a bore are the fiesta days, when strangers
make their visits.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Correspondence

Cada uno habla de la feria como le va en ella. [82]

As nothing of importance to our characters happened during the
first two days, we should gladly pass on to the third and last,
were it not that perhaps some foreign reader may wish to know how the
Filipinos celebrate their fiestas. For this reason we shall faithfully
reproduce in this chapter several letters, one of them being that
of the correspondent of a noted Manila newspaper, respected for its
grave tone and deep seriousness. Our readers will correct some natural
and trifling slips of the pen. Thus the worthy correspondent of the
respectable newspaper wrote:

"TO THE EDITOR, MY DISTINGUISHED FRIEND,--Never did I witness,
nor had I ever expected to see in the provinces, a religious
fiesta so solemn, so splendid, and so impressive as that
now being celebrated in this town by the Most Reverend and
virtuous Franciscan Fathers.

"Great crowds are in attendance. I have here had the pleasure
of greeting nearly all the Spaniards who reside in this
province, three Reverend Augustinian Fathers from the province
of Batangas, and two Reverend Dominican Fathers. One of the
latter is the Very Reverend Fray Hernando Sibyla, who has come
to honor this town with his presence, a distinction which its
worthy inhabitants should never forget. I have also seen a
great number of the best people of Cavite and Pampanga, many
wealthy persons from Manila, and many bands of music,--among
these the very artistic one of Pagsanhan belonging to
the escribano, Don Miguel Guevara,--swarms of Chinamen and
Indians, who, with the curiosity of the former and the piety
of the latter, awaited anxiously the day on which was to be
celebrated the comic-mimic-lyric-lightning-change-dramatic
spectacle, for which a large and spacious theater had been
erected in the middle of the plaza.

"At nine on the night of the 10th, the eve of the fiesta,
after a succulent dinner set before us by the _hermano mayor_,
the attention of all the Sp