[12] We must get even the water from the Spanish woman.
The uncertainty of Spanish adverbs--Planchette and the destiny of the state--Madame Bonilla's watery garden-party--De la Barra's "moderation committee"--Madero's "reform platform"
To-day we go for a farewell lunch at the Austrian chargé's, who is leaving almost immediately. His cousin, the new Austrian minister, Riedl von Riedenau, and his American wife, have arrived and are to have his house.
I have been out very little lately--only to a dinner at Hohler's and a luncheon at the Embassy. This is not a climate where foreigners can put screws on themselves with impunity. The mornings are indescribably clear-washed, brilliant, radiant, but the trouble about all this beauty is that it is too high. Very few resist it _à la longue_.
I have been reading C. F. Lummis's _Spanish Pioneers_--a noble picture of their romantic achievements. I am sending it. Please keep it with my other Mexicana. I am also sending _Howard's End_, this last a history of a life, to fill a dark afternoon.
I hear Elim, who is picking up a lot of Spanish, remonstrating with Elena, saying, "_No mañana, orita!_"[13] His infant soul has perceived the full significance of the fatal word _mañana_. _Orita_, I have discovered, is also apt to be followed by a maddening wait; and, in general, Spanish adverbs of time awaken uneasiness.
Last night there was a big dinner at Von H.'s, at which I did the _maîtresse de maison_. I wore the pastel-blue satin with the silver embroidery and the dull-pink bows. I thought I had ruined it forever in Vienna, at the French Embassy, when the French ambassador had his ball of twenty couples only, for the Princesse de Parme, and I gaily swept the floor with it during some hours. Gabrielle, however, who realizes that the source of gowns is far, has resurrected it.
There was much talk of the great reliance Madero places on the spirits. It is said that Madame M. goes into spiritualistic trances, and when in that condition answers doubtful questions, and that the planchette is fated to play a rôle in the destiny of the state.
However that may be, there is a most authentic story of Madero's having consulted the spirits through the medium of the planchette some years ago. When he asked what the future had in store for him he was told that he would one day be President of Mexico. He is supposed to have arranged his life in conformity to this prophecy, which put him in a condition of mind where everything that happened of happy or unhappy augury bore on the fulfilment of this destiny. It is certainly one way of coercing fate.