f to court her. And the courtship went forward with a better
prospect of success than is quite agreeable to contemplate.

Coronado and Clara were Adam and Eve; they were the only man and woman in
this paradise. People thus situated are claimed by a being whom most call
a goddess, and some a demon. She is protean; she is at once an invariable
formula and an individual caprice; she is a law governing the universal
multitude, and a passion swaying the unit. She seems to be under an
impression that, where a couple are left alone together, they are the last
relics of the human race, and that if they do not marry the type will
perish. Indifferent to all considerations but one, she pushes them toward
each other.

There is comparative safety from her in a crowd. Bachelors and maidens who
mingle by hundreds may remain bachelors and maidens. But pair them off in
lonely places and see if the result is not amazingly hymeneal. A fellow
who has run the gauntlet of seven years of parties in New York will marry
the first agreeable girl whom he meets in Alaska. There is such a thing as
leaving the haunts of men and repairing to waste places to find a husband.
We are told that English girls have reduced this to a system, and that
fair archers who have failed at Brighton go out to hunt successfully in
India.

Well, Coronado had the favoring chances of solitude, propinquity, and
daily opportunity. Seldom away from Clara for a day together, he was in
condition to take advantage of any of those moods which lay woman open to
courtship, such as gratitude for attentions, a disgust with loneliness, a
desire for something to love. It was a great thing for him that there was
work about the hacienda which no woman could easily do; that there were
men servants to govern, horses to be herded, valued, and sold, and lands
to be cultivated. All these male mysteries were soon handed over to
Coronado, subject to the advice of Aunt Maria and the final judgment of
Clara. The result was that _he_ and _she_ got into a way of frequently
discussing many things which threatened to habituate her to the idea of
being at one with him through life.

Have you ever watched two specks floating in a vessel of water? For a long
time they approach each other so slowly that the movement is imperceptible
but at last they are within range of each other's magnetism; there is a
start, a swift rush, and they are together. Thus it was that Clara was
gently, very gently, and u