nd for
him, loving happiness in his companionship. And while this was so, all
Felipe's unrest could not make him unhappy.

There were other causes entering into this unrest besides his yearning
desire to win Ramona for his wife. Year by year the conditions of life
in California were growing more distasteful to him. The methods, aims,
standards of the fast incoming Americans were to him odious. Their
boasted successes, the crowding of colonies, schemes of settlement and
development,--all were disagreeable and irritating. The passion for
money and reckless spending of it, the great fortunes made in one hour,
thrown away in another, savored to Felipe's mind more of brigandage and
gambling than of the occupations of gentlemen. He loathed them. Life
under the new government grew more and more intolerable to him; both his
hereditary instincts and prejudices, and his temperament, revolted.
He found himself more and more alone in the country. Even the Spanish
tongue was less and less spoken. He was beginning to yearn for
Mexico,--for Mexico, which he had never seen, yet yearned for like an
exile. There he might yet live among men of his own race and degree,
and of congenial beliefs and occupations. Whenever he thought of this
change, always came the quick memory of Ramona. Would she be willing
to go? Could it be that she felt a bond to this land, in which she had
known nothing but sufferings.

At last he asked her. To his unutterable surprise, Ramona cried:
"Felipe! The saints be praised! I should never have told you. I did not
think that you could wish to leave this estate. But my most beautiful
dream for Ramona would be, that she should grow up in Mexico."

And as she spoke, Felipe understood by a lightning intuition, and
wondered that he had not foreknown it, that she would spare her daughter
the burden she had gladly, heroically borne herself, in the bond of
race.

The question was settled. With gladness of heart almost more than he
could have believed possible, Felipe at once communicated with some rich
American proprietors who had desired to buy the Moreno estate. Land in
the valley had so greatly advanced in value, that the sum he received
for it was larger than he had dared to hope; was ample for the
realization of all his plans for the new life in Mexico. From the hour
that this was determined, and the time for their sailing fixed, a new
expression came into Ramona's face. Her imagination was kindled. An
untried f