great friends. I s'pose you knew her daughter,
Mamie; I hear she is very pretty."

Although Don Caesar was now satisfied that the Slinns knew nothing of
Mamie's singular behavior to him, he felt embarrassed by this
conversation. "Miss Mulrady is very pretty," he said, with grave
courtesy; "it is a custom of her race. She left suddenly," he added
with affected calmness.

"I reckon she did calculate to stay here longer--so her mother said;
but the whole thing was settled a week ago. I know my brother was
quite surprised to hear from Mr. Mulrady that if we were going to
decide about this house we must do it at once; he had an idea himself
about moving out of the big one into this when they left."

"Mamie Mulrady hadn't much to keep her here, considerin' the money and
the good looks she has, I reckon," said Vashti. "She isn't the sort of
girl to throw herself away in the wilderness, when she can pick and
choose elsewhere. I only wonder she ever come back from Sacramento.
They talk about papa Mulrady having BUSINESS at San Francisco, and THAT
hurrying them off! Depend upon it, that 'business' was Mamie herself.
Her wish is gospel to them. If she'd wanted to stay and have a
farewell party, old Mulrady's business would have been nowhere."

"Ain't you a little rough on Mamie," said Esther, who had been quietly
watching the young man's face with her large languid eyes, "considering
that we don't know her, and haven't even the right of friends to
criticise?"

"I don't call it rough," returned Vashti, frankly, "for I'd do the same
if I were in her shoes--and they're four-and-a-halves, for Harry told
me so. Give me her money and her looks, and you wouldn't catch me
hanging round these diggings--goin' to choir meetings Saturdays, church
Sundays, and buggy-riding once a month--for society! No--Mamie's head
was level--you bet!"

Don Caesar rose hurriedly. They would present his compliments to their
father, and he would endeavor to find their brother at Red Dog. He,
alas! had neither father, mother, nor sister, but if they would receive
his aunt, the Dona Inez Sepulvida, the next Sunday, when she came from
mass, she should be honored and he would be delighted. It required all
his self-possession to deliver himself of this formal courtesy before
he could take his leave, and on the back of his mustang give way to the
rage, disgust and hatred of everything connected with Mamie that filled
his heart. Conscious of his d