She dressed herself and went to call on her friend Carmencita.
After she had in a few voluble words stated the purpose of her visit, Carmencita called a maid and told her to run and fetch La Gorda.
They had a matter of importance which they wished to discuss with her.
La Gorda, a woman of ample proportions with a heavy moustache, soon joined them, and over a bottle of Malaga the three of them held a momentous conversation.
The result of it was that they indited a letter to the president asking for an audience.
The new president was a hefty young man in the early thirties who, a few years before, had been a stevedore in the employment of an American firm, and he had risen to his present exalted station by a natural eloquence and an effective use of his gun when he wanted to make a point or emphasize a statement.
When one of his secretaries placed the letter before him he laughed.
“What do those three old faggots want with me?”
But he was a good-natured fellow and accessible.
He did not forget that he had been elected by the people, as one of the people, to protect the people.
He had also during his early youth been employed for some months by Madame Coralie to run errands.
He told his secretary that he would see them at ten o’clock next morning.
They went at the appointed hour to the palace and were led up a noble stairway to the audience chamber; the official who conducted them knocked softly on the door; a barred judas was opened and a suspicious eye appeared.
The president had no intention of suffering the fate of his predecessor if he could help it and no matter who his visitors were did not receive them without precaution.
The official gave the three ladies’ names, the door was opened, but not too wide, and they slipped in.
It was a handsome room and various secretaries at little tables, in their shirtsleeves and with a revolver on each hip, were busy typing.
One or two other young men, heavily armed, were lying on sofas reading the papers and smoking cigarettes.
The president, also in his shirtsleeves, with a revolver in his belt, was standing with his thumbs in the sleeve-holes of his waistcoat.
He was tall and stout, of a handsome and even dignified presence.
“Que tal?” he cried, jovially, with a flash of his white teeth.
“What brings you here, senoras?”
“How well you’re looking, Don Manuel,” said La Gorda.
“You are a fine figure of a man.”
He shook hands with them, and his staff, ceasing their strenuous activity, leaned back and cordially waved their hands to the three ladies.
They were old friends, and the greetings, if a trifle sardonic, were hearty.
I must disclose the fact now (which I could without doubt do in a manner so discreet that I might be misunderstood; but if you have to say something you may just as well say it plainly as not) that these three ladies were the Madams of the three principal brothels in the capital of this free and independent state.
La Gorda and Carmencita were of Spanish origin and were very decently dressed in black, with black silk shawls over their heads, but Madame Coralie was French and she wore a toque.
They were all of mature age and of modest demeanour.
The president made them sit down, and offered them madeira and cigarettes, but they refused.
“No, thank you, Don Manuel,” said Madame Coralie.
“It is on business that we have come to see you.”
“Well, what can I do for you?”
La Gorda and Carmencita looked at Madame Coralie and Madame Coralie looked at La Gorda and Carmencita.
They nodded and she saw that they expected her to be their spokeswoman.
“Well, Don Manuel, it is like this.
We are three women who have worked hard for many years and not a breath of scandal has ever tarnished our good names.
There are not in all the Americas three more distinguished houses than ours and they are a credit to this beautiful city.
Why, only last year I spent five hundred dollars to supply my sala principal with plate-glass mirrors.
We have always been respectable and we have paid our taxes with regularity.
It is hard now that the fruits of our labours should be snatched away from us.
I do not hesitate to say that after so many years of honest and conscientious attention to business it is unjust that we should have to submit to such treatment.”
The president was astounded.
“But, Coralie, my dear, I do not know what you mean.
Has anyone dared to claim money from you that the law does not sanction or that I know nothing about?”
He gave his secretaries a suspicious glance.
They tried to look innocent, but though they were, only succeeded in looking uneasy.
“It is the law we complain of.
Ruin stares us in the face.”
“Ruin?”
“So long as this new divorce law is in existence we can do no business and we may just as well shut up our beautiful houses.”