He accepted with a like calm the shocking manner in which the Sulaco ladies smothered their faces with pearl powder till they looked like white plaster casts with beautiful living eyes, the peculiar gossip of the town, and the continuous political changes, the constant "saving of the country," which to his wife seemed a puerile and bloodthirsty game of murder and rapine played with terrible earnestness by depraved children.

In the early days of her Costaguana life, the little lady used to clench her hands with exasperation at not being able to take the public affairs of the country as seriously as the incidental atrocity of methods deserved.

She saw in them a comedy of naive pretences, but hardly anything genuine except her own appalled indignation.

Charles, very quiet and twisting his long moustaches, would decline to discuss them at all.

Once, however, he observed to her gently-- "My dear, you seem to forget that I was born here." These few words made her pause as if they had been a sudden revelation.