I told him that I did not wish to marry him,--I never wish to marry any
man,--and he is too proud to insist upon marrying a woman who does not
want him. We had a long conversation. We quite understand each other. He
will never ask me again."

"_Dios!_" gasped Don Roberto. "_Dios!_" But there was no anger in his
voice. His eyes rolled from Magdalena to the window and back again.
Finally he said,--

"He no come back, then?"

"He is coming back in six weeks."

Don Roberto drew a long breath and seemed to recover himself.

"Then si he no break the engagement, he feel glad si it is make again.
You marry him the day after he come back. I fixit that."

"No power on earth can make me marry him."

Her father searched her countenance. He knew her character. Did it not
have that iron of New England in it for which he would have sold his
birthright? He might turn her into the street, and it would avail him
nothing. Again his features relaxed, this time not with surprise and
consternation, but with abject fear. He shuddered from head to foot;
then his hands shot up to receive his face. He groaned and rocked from
side to side.

Magdalena was aghast. What feeling was alive in her united in filial
tenderness. She went to him and put her hands uncertainly about his
head, then stroked his hair awkwardly: she was little used to
endearments.

"I never thought--" she stammered. "I never thought--"

"Thirty years I work like the slave, and now all going! Eeram, he have
the death-tick in him: I hear! And now I no go to have the son, and I go
to die in the streets like the others; with no one cents! _Ay! yi! ay!
yi!_"

Magdalena was pricked with a new fear: Was her father insane? She had
heard of the "fixed idea." This weevil had been burrowing in his brain
for more than a quarter of a century. She went back to her chair and
said assertively,--

"You are one of the ablest financiers in California: everybody says so.
Nothing can change that, whether uncle dies or not. This is all a fancy
of yours. You don't half appreciate yourself. And you are tired out
to-night, and have not been well lately--"

"All going! All going! _Ay de mi! Ay de mi!_ Why I no dying with the
wife and the little boy? Make myself over, and now the screws go to drop
out my character, and I am like before."

Magdalena had an inspiration. "Take me into the bank," she said eagerly.
"Teach me everything. I am sure I can learn. Then I will look after
everythin