Then, taking the other end between her thin, purlish lips, she breathed forth a blue cloud of aromatic vapour.
After a few whiffs she invited the major to participate, offering him a cigarrito from her beaded cigar-case.
This being considered an especial favour, the major's gallantry would not permit him to refuse.

He took the cigarrito, therefore; but, once in possession, he knew not how to use it.
Imitating the senora, he opened the diminutive cartridge, spreading out the edges of the wrapper, but attempted in vain to re-roll it.
The ladies, who had watched the process, seemed highly amused, particularly the younger, who laughed outright.
"Permit me, Senor Coronel," said the Dona Joaquina, taking the cigarrito from the major's hand, and giving it a turn through her nimble fingers, which brought it all right again.
"Thus--now--hold your fingers thus.

Do not press it: _suave, suave_.
This end to the light--so--very well!" The major lit the cigar, and, putting it between his great thick lips, began to puff in a most energetic style.
He had not cast off half a dozen whiffs when the fire, reaching his fingers, burned them severely, causing him to remove them suddenly from the cigar.

The wrapper then burst open; and the loose pulverised tobacco by a sudden inhalation rushed into his mouth and down his throat, causing him to cough and splutter in the most ludicrous manner.
This was too much for the ladies, who, encouraged by the cachinnations of Clayley, laughed outright; while the major, with tears in his eyes, could be heard interlarding his coughing solo with all kinds of oaths and expressions.
The scene ended by one of the young ladies offering the major a glass of water, which he drank off, effectually clearing the avenue of his throat.
"Will you try another, Senor Coronel ?" asked Dona Joaquina, with a smile.
"No, ma'am, thank you," replied the major, and then a sort of internal subterraneous curse could be heard in his throat.
The conversation continued in English, and we were highly amused at the attempts of our new acquaintances to express themselves in that language.
After failing, on one occasion, to make herself understood, Guadalupe said, with some vexation in her manner: "We wish brother was home come; brother speak ver better Englis." "Where is he ?" I inquired.
"In the ceety--Vera Cruz." "Ha! and when did you expect him ?" "Thees day--to-night--he home come." "Yes," added the Senora Joaquina, in Spanish: "he went to the city to spend a few days with a friend; but he was to return to-day, and we are looking for him to arrive in the evening." "But how is he to get out ?" cried the major, in his coarse, rough manner.
"How ?--why, Senor ?" asked the ladies in a breath, turning deadly pale.
"Why, he can't pass the pickets, ma'am," answered the major.
"Explain, Captain; explain!" said the ladies, appealing to me with looks of anxiety.
I saw that concealment would be idle.

The major had fired the train.
"It gives me pain, ladies," said I, speaking in Spanish, "to inform you that you must be disappointed.