nt which
greeted her appearance with her hostess, she herself was included in
the antagonism. With her youthful prepossession for her friends, this
distinction she regarded as flattering and aristocratic, and I fear she
accented it still more by discussing with Mrs. Randolph the merits
of the shopkeepers' wares in schoolgirl French before them. She was
unfortunate enough, however, to do this in the shop of a polyglot
German.

"Oxcoos me, mees," he said gravely,--"but dot lady speeks Engeleesh so
goot mit yourselluf, and ven you dells to her dot silk is hallf gotton
in English, she onderstand you mooch better, and it don't make nodings
to me." The laugh which would have followed from her own countrywomen
did not, however, break upon the trained faces of the "de Fontanges
l'Hommadieus," yet while Rose would have joined in it, albeit a
little ruefully, she felt for the first time mortified at their civil
insincerity.

At the end of two weeks, Major Randolph received a letter from Mr.
Mallory. When he had read it, he turned to his wife: "He thanks you," he
said, "for your kindness to his daughter, and explains that his sudden
departure was owing to the necessity of his taking advantage of a great
opportunity for speculation that had offered." As Mrs. Randolph turned
away with a slight shrug of the shoulders, the major continued: "But you
haven't heard all! That opportunity was the securing of a half interest
in a cinnabar lode in Sonora, which has already gone up a hundred
thousand dollars in his hands! By Jove! a man can afford to drop a
little social ceremony on those terms--eh, Josephine?" he concluded with
a triumphant chuckle.

"He's as likely to lose his hundred thousand to-morrow, while his
manners will remain," said Mrs. Randolph. "I've no faith in these sudden
California fortunes!"

"You're wrong as regards Mallory, for he's as careful as he is lucky. He
don't throw money away for appearance sake, or he'd have a rich home for
that daughter. He could afford it."

Mrs. Randolph was silent. "She is his only daughter, I believe," she
continued presently.

"Yes--he has no other kith or kin," returned the major.

"She seems to be very much impressed by Emile," said Mrs. Randolph.

Major Randolph faced his wife quickly.

"In the name of all that's ridiculous, my dear, you are not already
thinking of"--he gasped.

"I should be very loth to give MY sanction to anything of the kind,
knowing the difference of he