.Xdefaults file

[Rem P Roberti]

On my desktop box I settled on an xterm font and font size by
experimenting thus:

xterm -fa 'Bitstream Vera Sans Mono' -fs 10

I went through a number of fonts until I settled on the one I liked
most.  Then I created an .Xdefaults file in my home directory which 
included:

Xterm*faceName Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
Xterm*faceSize 10

Everything works fine.  However, when I tried to to this on my old
Compaq Presario on which I have 7.2 installed it doesn't work.  Oddly,
I can create an xterm window using the original xterm command that I
used when I was experimenting with fonts, and the window opens and is
rendered correctly, but I can't get X to read the .Xdefaults file.  Any
ideas on why .Xdefauts works on the desktop box but not the laptop?

Rem