earnestly solicited, would be
conveniently received at this time, and was answered by the arrival,
the next morning, for the use of herself and husband, of two horses,
one of which I myself had the pleasure of riding, and found it a most
excellent steed. Moreover, when Mr. ---- gave her the invitation, he
said he would be pleased to have one of her lady friends accompany her.
So you see she was "armed and equipped as the law directed."

Thus defended, she was ushered into the presence of her hostess, whom
she found reclining gracefully upon a very nice bed hung with
snow-white muslin curtains, looking--for she is extremely pretty,
though now somewhat pale--like a handsome wax doll.

"I am extremely sorry to find you unwell. Pray, when were you taken?
and are you suffering much at present?" commenced Mrs. ----, supposing
that her illness was merely an attack of headache, or some other
temporary sickness.

"Ah," groaned my lady, in a faint voice, "I have had a fever, and am
just beginning to get a little better. I have not been able to sit up
any yet, but hope to do so in a few days. As we have no servants, my
husband is obliged to nurse me, as well as to cook for several men, and
I am really afraid that, under the circumstances, you will not be as
comfortable here as I could wish."

"But, good heavens, my dear madam, why did you not send me word that
you were sick? Surely you must have known that it would be more
agreeable to me to visit you when you are in health," replied Mrs.
----.

"Oh," returned our fair invalid, "I thought that you had set your heart
upon coming, and would be disappointed if I postponed the visit."

Now, this was adding insult to injury. Poor Mrs. ----! Worn out with
hunger, shivering with cold, herself far from well, a new-comer, unused
to the makeshift ways which some people fancy essential to California
life, expecting from the husband's representations--and knowing that he
was very rich--so different a reception, and withal frank perhaps to a
fault, she must be pardoned if she was not as grateful as she ought to
have been, and answered a little crossly,--

"Well, I must say that I have not been treated well. Did you really
think that I was so childishly crazy to get away from home that I would
leave my nice plank house,"--it rose into palatial splendor when
compared with the floorless shanty, less comfortable than a Yankee
farmer's barn, in which she was standing,--"with its noble fire