oman Howard was quite
a character. I'm told she went off to the States years ago."

"Possibly," said Paul, carelessly. After a pause, as the carriage
drove up to the door, he turned to his host. "By the way, Woods, have
you a ghost here?"

"The house is old enough for one. But no. Why?"

"I'll swear I saw a figure moving yonder, in the shrubbery, late last
evening; and when I came up to it, it most unaccountably disappeared."

"One of Don Caesar's servants, I dare say. There is one of them, an
Indian, prowling about here, I've been told, at all hours. I'll put a
stop to it. Well, you must go then? Dreadfully sorry you couldn't
stop longer! Good-by!"

CHAPTER IV.

It was two months later that Mr. Tony Shear, of Marysville, but lately
confidential clerk to the Hon. Paul Hathaway, entered his employer's
chambers in Sacramento, and handed the latter a letter.

"I only got back from San Francisco this morning; but Mr. Slate said I
was to give you that, and if it satisfied you, and was what you wanted,
you would send it back to him."

Paul took the envelope and opened it. It contained a printer's
proof-slip, which he hurriedly glanced over. It read as follows:--

"Those of our readers who are familiar with the early history of San
Francisco will be interested to know that an eccentric and irregular
trusteeship, vested for the last eight years in the Mayor of San
Francisco and two of our oldest citizens, was terminated yesterday by
the majority of a beautiful and accomplished young lady, a pupil of the
convent of Santa Clara. Very few, except the original trustees, were
cognizant of the fact that the administration of the trustees has been
a recognized function of the successive Mayors of San Francisco during
this period; and the mystery surrounding it has been only lately
divulged. It offers a touching and romantic instance of a survival of
the old patriarchal duties of the former Alcaldes and the simplicity of
pioneer days. It seems that, in the unsettled conditions of the Mexican
land-titles that followed the American occupation, the consumptive
widow of a scion of one of the oldest Californian families intrusted
her property and the custody of her infant daughter virtually to the
city of San Francisco, as represented by the trustees specified, until
the girl should become of age. Within a year, the invalid mother died.
With what loyalty, sagacity, and prudence these gentlemen fulfilled
their t