n't try to
imitate them. The knack of making conversation will come with time; and
you will always be appreciated by the men who are weary past your power
to understand of the women that chatter. If I buy this place, I shall
read over some of my favourite old books with you,--that is, if you will
let me; and I believe that you will."

Magdalena's hands were clasped on the edge of the table; she was leaning
forward, her soul in her eyes. For the moment she was beautiful, and
Trennahan looked his admiration and forgot her lack of complexion. To
Magdalena there had been a sudden blaze of golden light, then a rift,
through which she caught a brief flash of heaven. Her vague longings
suddenly cohered. She was to be solitary no longer. She was to have a
companion, a friend,--perhaps a confidante, a person to whom she might
speak out her inmost soul. She had never thought that she should wish to
open her reserve to anyone, but in this prospect there was enchantment.

Mrs. Yorba returned to her seat and helped herself to hot cakes.

"When Miss Montgomery and Miss Brannan were leaving last night," she
said, "they asked me to stop for them this afternoon, as they wished to
persuade you that the Mark Smith place was exactly what you wanted, or
something to that effect. So we shall stop for them. The char-a-banc
will be at the door at a quarter to four."

That was her last remark, as it had been her first, and some twenty
minutes later the repast came to an end.

XIX

Trennahan was again left to his own devices. He amused himself
inspecting the stable, a most unpretentious structure, containing all
that was absolutely indispensable and no more. Attached to the farmhouse
in an adjoining field was a barn for the work-horses. The stable-boy did
duty as guide, and conducted Trennahan through the dairy, granary,
carpenter shop, and various other outbuildings. It was all very plain,
but very substantial, the symbol of a fortune that would last;
altogether unlike the accepted idea of California, that State of rockets
and sticks.

But, for the matter of that, thought Trennahan, all things should be
stable in this land of dreaming nature. He had been told since his
arrival that everything had been in a rut since the great Bonanza
plague; but assuredly this archaic repose must be its natural
atmosphere; its fevers must always be sporadic and artificial.

Yes, he thought, it is a good place to die in. It would have been
into