The soldiers could be seen everywhere, from the shady plazas in the busy part of town to the normally quiet avenues and parks of the neighborhoods such as ours. It was common to see a young man smartly clad in uniform with a pretty young girl on his arm, strolling along the streets or resting in the triangular park between King William and Washington, she reposing against the trunk of a Spanish oak while he stood a proper distance from her, holding his hat as they talked. Emory was increasingly impetuous as Barrista appeared to side with Carranza, and whether in conference with Tetzel or out late at night for what he always announced were “meetings,” he was less and less at home. When at home his moods fluctuated from open hostility to cold withdrawal. Watching him lose his normal cockiness as new worries were added to the old ones was very painful to me, regardless of whether I could be certain of his true reasons for staying out so much. One night I made a strong appeal to him to give it all up.
