per in his hand, and he disregarded the
steaming cup of tea which his daughter had poured for him.

"Well," he said, with a toss of self-satisfied import. "Now the
newspapers are waking up to the significance of the California news." He
then read from the paper, as nearly as I can recollect, something like
the following:

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26.--There is an intense and growing anxiety on
this coast with respect to the non-appearance of any eastward-bound
vessels. The breeze from the east continues, and is unprecedented.

"Now, I should like to know," said the Judge, as he laid down the paper
and took up his tea-cup, "why a breeze from the east in California
should be unprecedented."

"Because," I ventured to remark, "it usually blows from the sea at this
season."

"Nonsense," exclaimed the Judge with vigor. "A variation for a few days
in wind or weather is a common occurrence everywhere. Fancy a message
sent all over the world from the West Indies that the trade winds were
six days late, or a telegram from Minnesota that the winter frosts had
been interfered with for a week by pleasant sunshine. No, sir. The event
of importance to the Californian at this moment is the mysterious
something that has happened out at sea, and there is no excuse for his
associating a summer breeze from the east with it, except that there is
something peculiar about that breeze that associates it in the mind with
the predominant mystery."

I smiled. "You will pardon me, Judge, but it seems to me," I said, "that
you are trying to invest the whole affair with an occult significance
that is subjective. I suppose that in a few hours the matter will be
explained and forgotten."

In a moment we were in one of those foolish little wrangles in which, so
far as argument is concerned, the younger man is at a great
disadvantage, when the elder, however unreasonable his claims, enforces
them with the advantage of age and position. I remember that the desire
to convince Kate on the one hand that I was free from what I conceived
to be her father's unreasonableness, and sustain my independence of
views on the other hand, led me to say much more than was polite, for I
exasperated the old gentleman, and with a curt and not altogether
complimentary remark he got up and left the room.

The moment he was gone I turned to the daughter and laughingly said:
"Well, my dear, I am afraid I have offended your father without
intending it, but y