There had not been time for many. Yet--well--there had been the
marriage, of course; and the relations who thought it so fine a thing
that Rafael married an heiress and a saint were not so sure now. The
tone of Angela and her slight shrug of contempt showed that she shared
their doubts.
Raquel Estevan de Arteaga was in the city. She had ridden the sixty
miles on horseback, and all the old Spanish families were entertaining
her in a style magnificent as their means would allow; but all who cared
to have her must invite no heretic Americans, and it was understood to
be a promise to Dona Luisa. She did not wish to meet the
English-speaking people; not one had yet crossed her threshold; even Don
Eduardo, sharing some business interests with her husband, was not
welcomed, because he held fields of the old Mission, for which the
Church was fighting in the courts of law.
The bishop himself had set the pace for courtesy toward Raquel. He had
called on her personally, had a long private interview (Angela's opinion
of clerical private interviews with young wives was expressed by another
shrug), and he made a point of calling on several families where she
visited.
Dona Maria was of course justly offended. Her estates had been greater
than those of the Arteagas, and her family name was older in the land
than Estevan, which after all was only Spanish for Stevens. On this
subject it was easy to see Angela agreed perfectly with the wife of her
cousin. Each had built her own plan for certain social supremacies in
the little kingdom of San Juan, but neither had reckoned with the fact
that the girl from a convent in Mexico would assume a rule there such as
no one else had ever dared attempt, and emphasize it by barring out
heretics, even when married into Catholic families.
What Rafael thought of it no one yet knew. He hated the old Mission,
above all places. The only time it was worth while was when the dances
were held in the old dining-room; and when his mother died he thought of
course no woman would ever wish to live there. A town residence was
assured, and thus closer connection with the new, progressive people.
But the bride of a day had decided differently: when a home befitting
their station was built for her in San Juan, she would move to it; until
then the Mission rooms would serve, and they must arrange it with the
bishop.
To tell her that the bishop no longer had jurisdiction over the property
was of no use whatever. She had listened quietly to the legal details of
the auction sale, when it had all been bought by Eduardo Downing and
Miguel Arteaga.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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