Ramón: “Must it always be red?”
Cipriano: “Till green-robed Malintzi brings her water-bowl.”
The bugle and the flute both sounded. The guard of Huitzilopochtli put out the red candles, one by one, the guard of Quetzalcoatl extinguished the blue candles. The church was dark, save for the small, but fierce blue-white light beyond the Quetzalcoatl statue, and the red smouldering on the altar.
Ramón began slowly to speak:
The church was utterly still, all men standing with a hand pressed over their eyes.
Till there was one note of a silver gong, and the green candles of Malintzi were being lighted in the altar place.—Ramón’s voice was heard again: