ad done much for her
drooping courage; the escapade, even this going at eight o'clock in the
morning into a country store with a man, and on money borrowed from the
man, was an experience to put the gay note of adventure back into the
affair.

Gloria made her purchases in fifteen minutes and the change from theatre
gown into an olive outing-suit in another fifteen. Her discarded
garments were gathered up, put into a cardboard box by the clerk, and
wrapped in heavy paper to be stowed away in the car. She confronted
Gratton smilingly in her new garb, her hands in her pockets, her face
saucy, her slim body boyish in its swagger and richly feminine in its
unhidden curves. Gratton's eyes shone, quick with admiration. She
laughed and a flush came into her cheeks as he gravely paid for her
clothing and his own. When they went to their car both were strangely
silent.

"I owe you a lot of money," she said with assumed carelessness.

"Which I hope you never repay," he returned meaningly.

At nine o'clock they were threading the streets of Sacramento. At a
little after ten they were in Auburn. They drove through "Old Town,"
passed the courthouse and through the newer portion of the village; by
the Freeman Hotel and the railroad-yards, through the "subway" under the
tracks, and turned off to the right, leaving the highway for the first
time and skirting the olive-orchards on the hill. Then, sweeping around
a wide curve they caught the first glimpse of the American River deep
down in its historic canon. On, over a narrow, red-dirt road, closer
down to the gorge, across the long bridge, up and up the steep, writhing
grade. They came to the top of the ridge; raced through Cool, through
Lotus----

"Coloma!" gasped Gloria. "You are going to Coloma!"

He slowed the car down that he might look at her keenly.

"Well?" he said lightly.

"It is to Coloma that you have been coming every week!"

"Well?" he said a second time.

"Then you--you, too----"

He glanced at the road, cut down the speed still more, and looked back
into her thoughtful eyes.

"Would you rather that it was Mark King or I who succeeded?"

She was clearly perplexed.

"Mark King is papa's partner," she said musingly.

"And I? I hope one day to be more than his partner!"

She understood but gave no sign of understanding. He did not press the
point.

"Here we are," he said presently as the first of the picturesque old
rock-and-mortar houses of Coloma sto