in splashes of red color on the walls,
without visible conveyance. The dust of six months, closely packed in
cornice and carving, yielded under the steady rain a thin yellow paint,
that dropped on wayfarers or unexpectedly oozed out of ceilings and
walls on the wretched inhabitants within. The outskirts of
Rough-and-Ready and the dried hills round Los Gatos did not appear to
fare much better; the new vegetation had not yet made much headway
against the dead grasses of the summer; the pines in the hollow wept
lugubriously into a small rivulet that had sprung suddenly into life
near the old trail; everywhere was the sound of dropping, splashing,
gurgling, or rushing waters.

More hideous than ever, the new Mulrady house lifted itself against the
leaden sky, and stared with all its large-framed, shutterless windows
blankly on the prospect, until they seemed to the wayfarer to become
mere mirrors set in the walls, reflecting only the watery landscape,
and unable to give the least indication of light or heat within.
Nevertheless, there was a fire in Mulrady's private office that
December afternoon, of a smoky, intermittent variety, that sufficed
more to record the defects of hasty architecture than to comfort the
millionaire and his private secretary, who had lingered after the early
withdrawal of the clerks. For the next day was Christmas, and, out of
deference to the near approach of this festivity, a half-holiday had
been given to the employees. "They'll want, some of them, to spend
their money before to-morrow; and others would like to be able to rise
up comfortably drunk Christmas morning," the superintendent had
suggested. Mr. Mulrady had just signed a number of checks indicating
his largess to those devoted adherents with the same unostentatious,
undemonstrative, matter-of-fact manner that distinguished his ordinary
business. The men had received it with something of the same manner. A
half-humorous "Thank you, sir"--as if to show that, with their patron,
they tolerated this deference to a popular custom, but were a little
ashamed of giving way to it--expressed their gratitude and their
independence.

"I reckon that the old lady and Mamie are having a high old time in
some of them gilded pallises in St. Petersburg or Berlin about this
time. Them diamonds that I ordered at Tiffany ought to have reached
'em about now, so that Mamie could cut a swell at Christmas with her
war-paint. I suppose it's the style to g