The Headless Horseman

Excerpt: ...points, you become convinced that you are looking upon a woman, though it may be one distinguished by certain idiosyncrasies. You are looking upon the Doña Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos. You are struck by the strangeness of her costume-still more by the way she sits her horse. In your eyes, unaccustomed to Mexican modes, both may appear odd-unfeminine-perhaps indecorous. The Doña Isidora has no thought-not even a suspicion-of there being anything odd in either. Why should she? She is but following the fashion of her country and her kindred. In neither respect is she peculiar. She is young, but yet a woman. She has seen twenty summers, and perhaps one more. Passed under the sun of a Southern sky, it is needless to say that her girlhood is long since gone by. In her beauty there is no sign of decadence. She is fair to look upon, as in her "buen quince" (beautiful fifteen), Perhaps fairer. Do not suppose that the dark lining on her lip damages the feminine expression of her face. Rather does it add to its attractiveness. Accustomed to the glowing complexion of the Saxon blonde, you may at first sight deem it a deformity. Do not so pronounce, till you have looked again. A second glance, and-my word for it-you will modify your opinion. A third will do away with your indifference; a fourth change it to admiration! Continue the scrutiny, and it will end in your becoming convinced: that a woman wearing a moustache-young, beautiful, and brunette-is one of the grandest sights which a beneficent Nature offers to the eye of man. It is presented in the person of Isidora Covarubio de los Llanos. If there is anything unfeminine in her face, it is not this; though it may strengthen a wild, almost fierce, expression, at times discernible, when her white teeth gleam conspicuously under the sable shadow of the "bigotite." Even then is she beautiful; but, like that of the...