GOOD-BY TO MEXICO CITY
"Oh, yesterday was a grand day!" Nan stretched her arms wide and high as
she sat up in her bed the next morning.
"Yes, wasn't it?" Bess rolled over in her bed and looked at Nan. "It was
just full of surprises. I don't know what I liked the best."
"I do," Nan said promptly.
"What?"
"Oh, Cousin Adair. I think he's a darling."
"He'd probably roar a mighty roar if he heard you say that," Bess
laughed at the prospect, "but you know, I quite agree with you, even if
it isn't my friend that he has invited to stop at the hacienda."
"But Walter's a friend to all of us," Nan protested.
"Yes, yes, of course," Bess agreed. "He's a friend to all of us and a
particular friend to you."
"Bessie, if this big pillow wasn't so soft," Nan looked at the pillow
she was holding in her hand speculatively, "I'd heave it over at you so
fast that you wouldn't know what had struck you."
"That's all right, Nancy," Bess laughed. "I understand. You don't like
to be teased."
"Wasn't it fun last night?" Nan changed the subject completely.
"What was fun?" Bess could remember so many nice things that she really
didn't know which one Nan was talking about.
"Dinner on the bank of the canal at Xochimilco," Nan answered promptly.
"I'll never forget it. The lights. The flowers. The music. Who would
ever think to look at him and hear him talk that Cousin Adair would be
romantic enough to think up anything like that?"
"I know it." Bess idly watched an insect that was buzzing around the
room. "I was much surprised. Then I began to wonder if it wasn't Walker
Jamieson's idea after all. You know he has a clever way of suggesting
things to your cousin, so that when your cousin decides what to do it
appears as though he thought up the idea originally."
"Why, Bess." Nan appeared to be horrified at the thought.
"Oh, you know it's so." Bess looked over at Nan. "It's lots of fun to
watch him do it. Do you know, sometimes I think that he's almost clever
enough to make Mr. MacKenzie think that the idea of his marrying Alice
was his, Mr. MacKenzie's I mean, originally. Do you suppose?"
"Bess, if you don't stop speculating about that, I don't know what I'm
going to do to you." Nan laughed. "You know you might spoil everything
by talking about it," she ended seriously. "For all you know the idea
has never once entered Walker Jamieson's head."
Bess hooted at this. "Don't you ever think that," she said finally,
"because it isn't true and you know it isn't."
"Say, what are you two people doing in bed at this hour?" Laura stuck
her head in the doorway and inquired. "Don't you know that it's long
past time to get up."
"Oh, bed's so nice," Nan answered, "I just hate to get up."
"Well, all I can say is," Laura finished before she closed the door,
"the temperature downstairs is slightly chilly, and if you know what's
good for you, you'll be out of there in a jiffy."
"Right-o." Nan jumped up at this bit of information. "Hi! Laura," she
called after her friend, "come back here a minute. Was there any mail
this morning," she asked as Laura's red head reappeared.
"Nothing for us," Laura answered, "but your cousin got something that
made him blow up. That's why I'm telling you to hurry. I gather from
certain orders I overheard him giving the chauffeur that he wants to
start immediately, if not sooner, for the hacienda."
"Really?" Bess asked, as she too jumped out of bed. "You mean we are
going to leave Mexico City today."
"That's the impression I'm trying hard to convey," Laura responded. "And
I think that if you two lugs want any breakfast at all, you better get a
hustle on." With this she closed the door definitely and disappeared.
Needless to say, Nan and Bess hurried as they had not hurried for a long
time. "Getting ready for an early morning class in the winter has
nothing on this," Bess laughed as she tied a bright three-cornered scarf
around her neck and pulled it in place.
"I'll say it hasn't," Nan agreed, quickly tying the laces in her white
oxfords. "A lick and a promise and we're ready to go." With this she
bounded across the room and opened the door wide for her friend.
"Such energy!" Bess exclaimed as though horrified. She was never one to
be as exuberant as Nan. She was always more dignified and more correct.
Nan was more natural and more full of fun. She did what she liked to do,
for the most part, simply because it was fun. Bess was more apt to do
things because other people did them. Nan was a leader, and Bess, the
follower. That was, perhaps, the reason they had been friends for so
long. They were alike in some respects, but totally different in others.
Now, as they came down the broad stairway of the big hotel lobby
together, this difference was most plain. Adair MacKenzie, pacing up and
down the lobby even as he did in his office when he was at work, stopped
to look at them.
"She'll get by," he thought with satisfaction as he noted Nan's bright
face and free, graceful walk. "'bout time you two made your appearance,"
he said aloud and assumed a grim appearance. "Finished a day's work
myself already. Guess it's another to get you people started."
"Started?" Nan questioned.
"Can't stay here all the time." Adair answered her question. "Anyway, I
just got word that the housekeeper is arriving tomorrow and I've got to
get down there and have things straightened around before she puts in an
appearance. These ornery housekeepers, you know, have to be babied. If
you don't, they leave every time you turn around. Someday, someone will
invent a robot that will do the work, and then--"
"You won't have a housekeeper to scold anymore, daddy," Alice
interrupted and finished for him.
"Serve her right," Adair answered as though the housekeeper would be the
loser. "Can't see that she's any good anyway."
"So we're leaving." Walker Jamieson joined the rest in the lobby. He had
been out for an early morning walk and looked fresh and full of life as
he came in. "Got your camera, Nan?" he turned to her when he spoke.
"Upstairs," Nan answered.
"Let's take a few pictures," Walker suggested. In the face of Adair's
morning state, this seemed a daring thing to suggest, and Nan looked at
Adair to see his reaction. He seemed not to be listening.
"Run along," Alice gave Nan a little shove. "Dad's going to be busy for
the next half hour or so, finishing up some business here, so if we
hurry, we can take all the pictures we want to."
At this Nan did go upstairs for her camera. She was anxious enough to,
but she had hesitated because she never liked to be the one to arouse
her cousin.
Now, she almost petted the camera as she returned with it. She loved it
and was already looking forward to the day when she could own one
herself, for she had made up her mind, since Walker had been giving her
instructions to learn all she possibly could about taking pictures. This
was the reason she took pictures of everyone and everything she saw
until Walker declared that the authorities would be questioning her on
suspicion that she was a spy of some sort.
"Me, a spy?" Nan laughed at the thought.
"Well, you do look harmless," Walker agreed, "but then strange things do
happen, especially to people who spend all their time taking pictures.
How many have you got now?"
"Oh, I don't know," Nan laughed.
"Come on, 'fess up'," Walker urged.
"Let's see there must be a dozen rolls upstairs," Nan admitted. "It will
cost a fortune to develop them, won't it?"
"What do you say to my buying some developer and pans and whatever else
is needed and taking them along to the hacienda with us?" Walker asked.
"We could develop all your films there then, for practically nothing."
"I'd like that," Nan agreed enthusiastically, "but I thought you had
some big story you were going to work on down there."
"Oh, that can wait." Walker Jamieson acted as though stories did wait
for people and laughed at himself while he did it. "Anyway it will
only take a jiffy to teach you all I know about the photography
business."
"All right then," Nan agreed.
So it came about that Nan and Walker went to the hacienda supplied with
everything to develop pictures. How fortunate this was! But then that
story belongs to later chapters.
"Well, eagle eye, how's the camera working this morning?" Laura inquired
as Nan and Walker went out into the lovely patio of their hotel. "Want
to take some pictures of me draped around one of those tall white
pillars?"
"Do one of you strung from that balcony, up there, kid," Walker offered
generously.
"Thank you, kind sir," Laura replied graciously, "but since I'm going to
need my neck for a little while longer, I must refuse--with regret of
course."
"On second thought, perhaps that is best," Walker agreed. "It would be a
shame to spoil this lovely scene this fine morning."
"It is pretty, isn't it?" Nan looked about her with great satisfaction.
The patio or courtyard so familiar to Spain is a part of the Mexican
scene too, and this one where Nan was taking pictures was particularly
lovely with its gay flowers, deep green foliage, and pond all surrounded
by the pinkish colored walls of the hotel itself.
"Oh, but I hate to leave all this," Nan remarked when the pictures were
taken and she and Laura and Walker were returning to the hotel lobby.
"And so do we," the other girls chorused, as the party all came
together.
"Ah, you go, but you return." Walker sounded quite poetic as he said
this. "And then, remember, you have no conception of the adventures the
hacienda holds in store for you."
"Have you?" The girls looked suspiciously at Walker, when Nan asked this
question.
His answer was a mysterious look.