Under the circumstances we cannot wonder that this should be just as she
desired.

"Yes--it is--best," she murmured, hiding her face against his shoulder.
"What you say is true. It will save me trouble."

After a short heaven of silence he added, "I will go and see what is
needed. I must find a priest."

As he was departing she caught him; it seemed to her just then that she
could not be a wife so soon; but the result was that after another silence
and a faint sobbing, she let him go.

Meantime Coronado, that persevering and audacious but unlucky conspirator,
was in treble trouble. He was afraid that he would lose Clara; afraid that
his plottings had been brought to light, and that he would be punished;
afraid that his uncle would die and thus deprive him of all chance of
succeeding to any part of the estate of Munoz. Garcia had been brought
ashore apparently at his last gasp, and he had not yet come out of his
insensibility. For a time Coronado hoped that he was in one of his fits;
but after eighteen hours he gave up that feeble consolation; he became
terribly anxious about the old man; he felt as though he loved him. The
people of Monterey universally admitted that they had never before known
such an affectionate nephew and tender-hearted Christian as Coronado.

He tried to see Clara, meaning to make the most with her of Garcia's
condition, and hoping that thus he could divert her a little from
Thurstane. But somehow all his messages failed; the little house which
held her repelled him as if it had been a nunnery; nor could he get a word
or even a note from her. The truth is that Clara, fearing lest Coronado
should tell more stories about her million to Thurstane, had taken the
women of the family into her confidence and easily got them to lay a sly
embargo on callers and correspondents.

On the second day Garcia came to himself for a few minutes, and struggled
hard to say something to his nephew, but could give forth only a feeble
jabber, after which he turned blank again. Coronado, in the extreme of
anxiety, now made another effort to get at Clara. Reaching her house, he
learned from a bystander that she had gone out to walk with the Americano,
and then he thought he discovered them entering the distant church.

He set off at once in pursuit, asking himself with an anxiety which almost
made him faint, "Are they to be married?"

CHAPTER XLII.

In those days the hymeneal laws of California were as ea