ild flowers here," she warned him, "You'll have
the forester after you! When did you get back?" she added. "Where have
you been so long?" burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.

"About an hour ago," he replied amiably. "The boat was late."

"I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all." She could not
keep it back. "The duke never bothered to, you know."

But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.
Blair did not flinch.

"No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon
the English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for
linking me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And
I--" He paused, then without looking at her he began again.

"Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I--well, honestly,
I didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
Angeles while I was out here. You see, he--our family, have lived in
the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here,
and--" Again he broke off abruptly. "Do you want to know about me?" he
demanded.

Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him. Her heart was beating
wildly.

"Oh, please!" she begged.

"Perhaps I should have told you at the first," he began, "or at least
after you told me who you were, but--anyway, I didn't. I'd never told
anyone before and I didn't much suppose I ever would. There's a reason,
though, why I'm particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason
just as good as you've got. I'm--well, I'm one of Wildenai's great,
great grandsons!"

And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and
motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he
waited uneasily. Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was
only laughing!

She was the first to break the silence.

"Are you trying to be funny?" Her voice was very cold.

"Not at all," he answered hotly. "It must be all of ten generations back
or even more, and of course it wasn't all Spanish afterward, but, just
the same, I'm as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the
duke,--always have been! I'm just as proud of it, too. Possibly you
will remember that the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in
California. Anyway," he finished bitterly, "what difference does it