e things. Here
is something I promised you," he added, laying a small heavy canvas bag
upon the table, just as he had always laid a package of tobacco or some
other small gift.

Old Archulera nodded without looking at the bag.

"Thank you," he said.

Afterward they talked about the bean crop and the weather, and had an
excellent dinner of goat meat cooked with chile.

In town Ramon found himself a person of noticeably increased importance.
One of his first acts had been to buy a car, and he had attracted much
attention while driving this about the streets, learning to manipulate it.
He killed one chicken and two dogs and handsomely reimbursed their owners.
These minor accidents were due to his tendency, the result of many years
of horsemanship, to throw his weight back on the steering wheel and shout
"whoa!" whenever a sudden emergency occurred. But he was apt, and soon was
running his car like an expert.

His personal appearance underwent a change too. He had long cherished a
barbaric leaning toward finery, which lack of money had prevented him from
indulging. Large diamonds fascinated him, and a leopard skin vest was a
thing he had always wanted to own. But these weaknesses he now rigorously
suppressed. Instead he noted carefully the dress of Gordon Roth and of
other easterners whom he saw about the hotel, and ordered from the best
local tailor a suit of quiet colour and conservative cut, but of the very
best English material. He bought no jewelry except a single small pearl
for his necktie. His hat, his shoes, the way he had his neck shaved, all
were changed as the result of a painstaking observation such as he had
never practised before. He wanted to make himself as much as possible like
the men of Julia's kind and class. And this desire modified his manner and
speech as well as his appearance. He was careful, always watching himself.
His manner was more reserved and quiet than ever, and this made him appear
older and more serious. He smiled when he overheard a woman say that "he
took the death of his uncle much harder than she would have expected."

Ramon now received business propositions every day. Men tried to sell him
all sorts of things, from an idea to a ranch, and most of them seemed to
proceed on the assumption that, being young and newly come into his money,
he should part with it easily. Several of the opportunities offered him
had to do with the separation of the poor Mexicans from their land
holdi