he pines that, overcrowding the hollow, crept
partly up the side of the hill of Mulrady's shaft. A disused trail,
almost hidden by the waxen-hued yerba buena, led from the highway, and
finally lost itself in the undergrowth. It was a lovers' walk; they
were lovers, evidently, and yet the man was too self-poised in his
gravity, the young woman too conscious and critical, to suggest an
absorbing or oblivious passion.

"I should not have made myself so obtrusive to-day before your friend,"
said Don Caesar, with proud humility, "but I could not understand from
your mother whether you were alone or whether my company was desirable.
It is of this I have now to speak, Mamie. Lately your mother has seemed
strange to me; avoiding any reference to our affection; treating it
lightly, and even as to-day, I fancy, putting obstacles in the way of
our meeting alone. She was disappointed at your return from Sacramento
where, I have been told, she intended you to remain until you left the
country; and since your return I have seen you but twice. I may be
wrong. Perhaps I do not comprehend the American mother; I have--who
knows?--perhaps offended in some point of etiquette, omitted some
ceremony that was her due. But when you told me, Mamie, that it was
not necessary to speak to HER first, that it was not the American
fashion--"

Mamie started, and blushed slightly.

"Yes," she said hurriedly, "certainly; but ma has been quite queer of
late, and she may think--you know--that since--since there has been so
much property to dispose of, she ought to have been consulted."

"Then let us consult her at once, dear child! And as to the property,
in Heaven's name, let her dispose of it as she will. Saints forbid that
an Alvarado should ever interfere. And what is it to us, my little
one? Enough that Dona Mameta Alvarado will never have less state than
the richest bride that ever came to Los Gatos."

Mamie had not forgotten that, scarcely a month ago, even had she loved
the man before her no more than she did at present, she would still
have been thrilled with delight at these words! Even now she was
moved--conscious as she had become that the "state" of a bride of the
Alvarados was not all she had imagined, and that the bare adobe court
of Los Gatos was open to the sky and the free criticism of Sacramento
capitalists!

"Yes, dear," she murmured with a half childlike pleasure, that lit up
her face and eyes so innocently that it sto