Stories in Light and Shadow Author:Bret Harte General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: The Metropolitan Magazine co. Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Short Stories Fiction / Westerns History / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text.... more » When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE PASSING OF ENRIQUEZ When Enriquez Saltillo ran away with Miss Mannersley, as already recorded in these chronicles,1 her relatives and friends found it much easier to forgive that ill- assorted union than to understand it. For, after all, Enriquez was the scion of an old Spanish-Californian family, and in due time would have his share of his father's three square leagues, whatever incongruity there was between his lively Latin extravagance and Miss Mannersley's Puritan precision and intellectual superiority. They had gone to Mexico; Mrs. Saltillo, as was known, having an interest in Aztec antiquities, and he being utterly submissive to her wishes. For myself from my knowledge of Enri- quez's nature, I had grave doubts of his entire subjugation, although I knew the prevailing opinion was that Mrs. Saltillo's superiority would speedily tame him. Sincehis brief and characteristic note apprising me of his marriage, I had not heard from him. It was, therefore, with some surprise, a good deal of reminiscent affection, and a slight twinge of reproach that, two years after, I looked up from some proofs, in the sanctum of the "Daily Excelsior," to recognize his handwriting on a note that was handed to me by a yellow Mexican boy. 1 See " The Devotion of Enriquez," in Barker's Luck, and Other Stories. A single glance at its contents showed me that Mrs. Saltillo's correct Bostonian speech had not yet subdued Enriquez's peculiar Spanish-American slang: -- "Here we ar...« less