s. And
now--oh, you wise little thing!--all I can say is, I worship you."

"Yes, darling," replied Clara, walking gravely up to him, putting her
hands on his shoulders, and looking him thoughtfully in the eyes. "It was
the wisest thing I ever did. Don't be afraid of me. I never shall be so
clever again. I never shall be so tempted to be clever."

We must pass over a few months. Thurstane soon found that he had the Munoz
estate in his hands, and that, for the while at least, it demanded all his
time and industry. Moreover, there being no war and no chance of martial
distinction, it seemed absurd to let himself be ordered about from one hot
and cramped station to another, when he had money enough to build a
palace, and a wife who could make it a paradise. Finally, he had a taste
for the natural sciences, and his observations in the Great Canon and
among the other marvels of the desert had quickened this inclination to a
passion, so that he craved leisure for the study of geology, mineralogy,
and chemistry. He resigned his commission, established himself in San
Francisco, bought all the scientific books he could hear of, made
expeditions to the California mountains, collected garrets full of
specimens, and was as happy as a physicist always is.

Perhaps his happiness was just a little increased when Mrs. Stanley
announced her intention of returning to New York. The lady had been
amiable on the whole, as she meant always to be; but she could not help
daily taking up her parable concerning the tyranny and stupidity of man
and the superior virtue of woman; and sometimes she felt it her duty to
put it to Thurstane that he owed everything to his wife; all of which was
more or less wearing, even to her niece. At the same time she was such a
disinterested, well-intentioned creature that it was impossible not to
grant her a certain amount of admiration. For instance, when Clara
proposed to make her comfortable for life by settling upon her fifty
thousand dollars, she replied peremptorily that it was far too much for an
old woman who had decided to turn her back on the frivolities of society,
and she could with difficulty be brought to accept twenty thousand.

Furthermore, she was capable, that is, in certain favored moments, of
confessing error. "My dear," she said to Clara, some weeks after the
marriage, "I have made one great mistake since I came to these countries.
I believed that Mr. Coronado was the right man and Mr. Thurst