384 EPISODES OF MEXICAN LIFE. Book II. 
woman had not spoken a word. She now burst into tears, 
and, turning to Don Guillermo, said, " Your honour 
claims your right ; but how miserable am I in my old 
age ! He is my only child. But I have long seen that 
he would not be the comfort of ray latter years : he has 
not followed his father's example. But will not the gen- 
tlemen dismount and enter my poor house ? " she added, 
with the politeness which the lowest of the Spanish race 
never forget. " Yes," said Don Guillermo, as we entered 
the small clay hovel, " your husband was a worthy 
man. How has his son fallen into so miserable a posi- 
tion ? " "Ah, Sir! he has gambled away everything." 
" I should have given him no credit but for the letter of 
his father: how could he recommend a son whose bad 
character he must have known ? " " Ah, Sir, my husband 
never wrote that letter ; my boy forged it at the instiga- 
tion of his bad companions." " Then it is right that you 
should be punished," said Don Guillermo to the young 
man : " and you, Seiiora," he continued to the mother, 
" must comfort yourself. As the lad now is, he can never 
give your honour any help. I will take charge of him. 
I will teach him to work and to live like a respectable 
man, and the time may come when he will return to you 
an estimable character. You will go with me to Texas," 
he then added, addressing himself to the son. " Where- 
ever your honour pleases ;" and after a short stay, during 
which the old woman regaled us with " tortillas " and 
" frijoles," and Natividad took leave of a young woman 
and kissed a child, we left the place, and set out on our 
return . 
It deserves especial notice that this transaction, which 
did not occupy half an hour, was settled without the inter- 
vention of any public authority. 
