d bought him off. It was not
with HER money. She had sometimes thought that the colonel and he were
in confidence, and that was why she had lately distrusted Pendleton.
But she had refused to take the name of Arguello again after that
scene, and had called herself only by the name he had given her--would
he forgive her for ever speaking of it as she had?--Yerba Buena. But
on shipboard, at Milly's suggestion, and to keep away from Briones, her
name had appeared on the passenger list as Miss Good, and they had
come, not to New York, but Boston.

It was possible that the colonel had extracted the information he sent
her FROM Briones. They had parted from Pendleton in London, as he was
grumpy and queer, and, as Milly thought, becoming very miserly and
avaricious as he grew older, for he was always quarreling over the
hotel bills. But he had Mrs. Woods's New York address at Under Cliff,
and, of course, guessed where she was. There was no address on his
letter: he had said he would write again.

Thus much until they reached the steps of the veranda, and Milly,
flying down, was ostentatiously overwhelmed with the unexpected
appearance of Mr. Paul Hathaway and Yerba, whom she had been watching
from the window for the last ten minutes. Then the appearance of Mr.
Woods, Californian and reminiscent, and Mrs. Woods, metropolitan,
languid, and forgetful, and the sudden and formal retirement of the
girls. An arch and indefinable mystery in the air whenever Paul and
Yerba appeared together--of which even the servants were discreetly
conscious.

At dinner Mr. Woods again became retrospective and Californian, and
dwelt upon the changes he had noticed. It appeared the old pioneers
had in few cases attained a comfortable fortune for their old age. "I
know," he added, "that your friend Colonel Pendleton has dropped a good
deal of money over in Europe. Somebody told me that he actually was
reduced to take a steerage passage home. It looks as if he might
gamble--it's an old Californian complaint." As Paul, who had become
suddenly grave again, did not speak, Mrs. Woods reminded them that she
had always doubted the colonel's moral principles. Old as he was, he
had never got over that freedom of life and social opinion which he had
imbibed in early days. For her part, she was very glad he had not
returned from Europe with the girls, though, of course, the presence of
Don Caesar and his sister during their European sojourn was a