never tell when I am
going to amuse him.

"Engaged to a girl for her money? That's the worst thing on his list,
I suppose, eh, Ellie?" Before he finished the sentence he was almost
grave again. "I know where you got that information." He shook the
paper-knife at me. "Women's gossip is an invention of the devil!
Don't listen to it! The poor fellow has enough real counts to be
accused on, God knows!"

He said the last words with such an emphasis as did away with all the
comfort his explanation had brought me. I did not dare to press him
further; I was afraid I might hear worse.

He sat a moment frowning down at the tablecloth; then, "How would you
like to go down to the ranch for a week or so?" he inquired.

"Alone?" I asked.

"Well, I will go down with you, and stay as long as I can. Abby, of
course, will be there all the while. The colts are to be broken in
next week--that will be worth seeing; and no doubt the flowers will be
beautiful."

I said I would like to--though indeed I did not at all care. I was not
thinking of flowers. After father had left the house I went up-stairs
to my room; and, first locking the door and drawing the curtains close
because I did not want even my climbing white rose to see me, I took
out my new bracelet, and clasped it--one gold band around each wrist
with its chain swinging between--and closed my eyes and, holding my
wrists out, drew them apart until the chain jerked and stopped them--to
see just how it felt!

CHAPTER IV

THE FIRST DAY IN COURT

As father had said, the breaking of the colts was well worth seeing.
The first day I arrived at the ranch, clinging to the top rail of the
corral, I watched the glossy huddled flanks and shoulders and tossing
heads of the youngsters crowding together in the middle of the
inclosure, quivering with apprehension of the man approaching with his
rope; until, the man being unendurably near, one and another would
break and wheel, and trot with high head, whinnying, around the corral
close to the fence. Then, when Perez had one fast, one end of his rope
around the glossy neck, and slowly working toward him, hand over hand,
finally touched the velvety head, how the creature started, swerved,
tried to back, and felt the jerk of the halter. It made me think of
the way the prisoner had started when the policeman touched his arm.
At first their nervous, proud, restive airs reminded me constantly of
that strange person; and not