The Spinners Book of Fiction | Page 6

spared. He died
in 1830--and was the first Governor of Alta California after Mexico
threw off the yoke of Spain. He had power in full measure and went

before these upstart conquerors came to humble the rest of us into the
dust. Peace to his ashes--but perhaps you care nothing for this dear
brother of my youth, never heard of him before--such a giddy thing you
were; although at the last earthquake the point of his monument flew
straight into the side of the church and struck there, so you may have
heard the talk before they put it back in its place. It is of Sister
Dominica you think, but I think not only of her but of those old
days--Ay, Dios de mi! Who remembers that time but a few old women
like myself?
"Concha's father, Don José Dario Argüello, was Commandante of the
Presidio of San Francisco then; and there was nothing else to call San
Francisco but the Mission. Down at Yerba Buena, where the Americans
flaunt themselves, there was but a Battery that could not give even a
dance. But we had dances at the Presidio; day and night the guitar
tinkled and the fiddles scraped; for what did we know of care, or old
age, or convents or death? I was many years younger than Rafaella and
did not go to the grand balls, but to the little dances, yes, many and
many. When the Russians came--it was in 1806--I saw them every day,
and one night danced with Rezánov himself. He was so gay--ay de mi!
I remember he swung me quite off my feet and made as if he would
throw me in the air. I was angry that he should treat me like a baby, and
then he begged me so humbly to forgive him, although his eyes
laughed, that of course I did. He had come down from Sitka to try and
arrange for a treaty with the Spanish government that the poor men in
the employ of the Russian-American Company might have breadstuffs
to eat and not die of scurvy, nor toil through the long winter with no
flesh on their bones. He brought a cargo with him to exchange for our
corn and flour meanwhile. We had never seen any one so handsome
and so grand and he turned all our heads, but he had a hard time with
the Governor and Don José--there are no such Californians now or the
Americans would never have got us--and it took all his diplomacy and
all the help Concha and the priests could give him before he got his
way, for there was a law against trading with foreigners. It was only
when he and Concha became engaged that Governor Arillaga gave
in--how I pick up vulgar expressions from these American pupils, I
who should reform them! And did I not stand Ellen O'Reilley in the

corner yesterday for calling San Francisco 'Frisco'?--San Francisco de
Assisi! But all the saints have fled from California.
"Where was I? Forgive an old woman's rambling, but I have not told
stories since Rafaella's children grew up, and that was many years ago.
What do I talk here? You know. And I that used to love to talk. Ay yi!
But no one can say that I am not a good nun. Bishop Alemany has said
it and no one knows better than he, the holy man. But for him I might
be sitting all day on a corridor in the south sunning myself like an old
crocodile, for we had no convent till he came eight years ago; and
perhaps but for Concha, whom I always imitated, I might have a dozen
brats of my own, for I was pretty and had my wooers and might have
been persuaded. And God knows, since I must have the care of children,
I prefer they should be mothered by some one else for then I have
always the hope to be rid of them the sooner. Well, well! I am not a
saint yet, and when I go to heaven I suppose Concha will still shake her
finger at me with a smile. Not that she was ever self-righteous, our
Concha. Not a bit of it. Only after that long and terrible waiting she just
naturally became a saint. Some are made that way and some are not.
That is all.
"Did I tell you about the two young lieutenants that came with Baron
Rezánov? Davidov and Khostov their names were. Well, well, I shall
tell all tonight. I was but fourteen, but what will you? Was I not, then,
Spanish? It was Davidov. He always left the older people to romp with
the children, although I think there was a flame in his heart for Concha.