uld attend to do the
honors, created little interest, and was laughingly waived by Maruja.
"There really is not the slightest necessity to trouble the gentleman,"
she said, politely. "I know the house thoroughly, and I think I have
shown it once or twice before for your master. Indeed," she added,
turning to her party, "I have been already complimented on my skill as
a cicerone." After a pause, she continued, with a slight exaggeration
of action and in her deepest contralto, "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen,
the ball and court in which we are now standing is a perfect copy of
the Court of Lions at the Alhambra, and was finished in fourteen days
in white pine, gold, and plaster, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. A
photograph of the original structure hangs on the wall: you will
observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the reproduction is perfect. The
Alhambra is in Granada, a province of Spain, which it is said in some
respects to resemble California, where you have probably observed the
Spanish language is still spoken by the old settlers. We now cross the
stable-yard on a bridge which is a facsimile in appearance and
dimensions of the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, connecting the Doge's
Palace with the State Prison. Here, on the contrary, instead of being
ushered into a dreary dungeon, as in the great original, a fresh
surprise awaits us. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to precede you for
the surprise. We open a door thus--and--presto!"--

She stopped, speechless, on the threshold; the fan fell from her
gesticulating hand.

In the centre of a brilliantly-lit conservatory, with golden columns, a
young man was standing. As her fan dropped on the tessellated
pavement, he came forward, picked it up, and put it in her rigid and
mechanical fingers. The party, who had applauded her apparently
artistic climax, laughingly pushed by her into the conservatory,
without noticing her agitation.

It was the same face and figure she remembered as last standing before
her, holding back the crowding grain in the San Antonio field. But
here he was appareled and appointed like a gentleman, and even seemed
to be superior to the garish glitter of his new surroundings.

"I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss Saltonstall," he
said, with the faintest suggestion of his former manner in his
half-resentful sidelong glance. "I hear that you offered to dispense
with my services, but I knew that Mr. Prince would scarcely be
satisfied