eleven o'clock
The bare ugly sala , from which the uglier furniture had been removed , needed no ornaments with that moving beauty ; and even the coffee-colored , high-stomached old people were picturesque . I wander through those deserted salas sometimes , and , as the tears blister my eyes , imagination and memory people the cold rooms , and I forget that the dashing caballeros and lovely doñas who once called Monterey their own and made it a living picture-book are dust beneath the wild oats and thistles of the deserted cemetery on the hill . The Americans hardly know that such a people once existed . Chonita entered the sala at eleven o'clock , looking like a snow queen . Her gold hair , which always glittered like metal , was arranged to simulate a crown ; she wore a gown of Spanish lace , and no jewels but the string of black pearls . I never had seen her look so cold and so regal . Estenega stepped out upon the corridor .