Читать книгу The Plumed Serpent. Historical Novel - Life and Love after the Mexico Revolution онлайн

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‘But how is it possible?’ said Kate, ‘when Montes is so popular?’

‘Montes popular!’ they all cried at once. ‘Why!’ snapped the Judge, ‘he’s the most unpopular man in Mexico.’

‘Not with the Labour Party!’ said Owen, almost at bay.

‘The Labour Party!’ the Judge fairly spat like a cat. ‘There is no such thing. What is the Labour Party in Mexico? A bunch of isolated factory hands here and there, mostly in the State of Vera Cruz. The Labour Party! They’ve done what they could already. We know them.’

‘That’s true,’ said Henry. ‘The Labourites have tried every little game possible. When I was in Orizaba they marched to the Hotel Francia to shoot all the gringoes and the Gachupines. The hotel manager had pluck enough to harangue them, and they went off to the next hotel. When the man came out there to talk to them, they shot him before he got a word out. It’s funny, really! If you have to go to the Town Hall, and you’re dressed in decent clothes, they let you sit on a hard bench for hours. But if a street-sweeper comes in, or a fellow in dirty cotton drawers, it is Buenos dias! Señor! Pase Usted! Quiere Usted algo? — while you sit there waiting their pleasure. Oh, it’s quite funny.’