From the New Edition of In the Shadow of the Angel:
A short, rotund, dark-skinned man, he had risen to the top in his field, and was now President Porfirio Diaz’ personal physician. Although the doctor shrouded his own political views in discreet, tight-lipped professionalism, Antonio’s opinion of the old dictator was well-known to him: “I do not,” he had stated firmly, “admire election by self-appointment and self-perpetuation.”
“How is Cristina? And the baby?” Antonio began unceremoniously. “Sorry I took so long. Traffic as usual. The birth caught me off guard. She’s early. Is she all right? I mean, will the child live?”
The doctor patted Antonio on the arm. “A long time, I would predict. I waited to reassure you. The child is healthy and the birth was normal. I judge she is two to three weeks ahead of term, but when she gains her proper weight you will never know she was an early arrival.” The doctor smiled. “Perhaps she was eager to enter this world. Maybe she’ll cut her teeth on a new political era for Mexico.”
Antonio raised his eyebrows quizzically. “Just what do you mean?”
Dr. Vasquez Gomez wiped his wire-rim glasses and looked up at his friend. “There is unrest, you know. It is rumored that Don Porfirio is looking around for a vice-president. This year he’ll be seventy and I think that, at long last, he has faced the fact of his mortality.”
Antonio laughed. “Let’s have a drink to that, doctor. Anis? Cognac? What is your pleasure?”
The two friends toasted Mexico and the new baby…
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