ck into his chair, a satisfied little smile on his
lips. The mason's reaction was better than he had dared expect.

"It ought not to be called charity, exactly," he mused.

"What is it, then? It ain't law!"

"No, it wouldn't be legal either," the judge admitted. "But there are
things that are neither legal nor charitable. There are," he suggested,
"justice and wisdom and mercy!"

The mason could not follow such abstract thought. He looked blankly at
the judge. His mind had done its best when it had rejected without
hesitation the gift of Adelle's fortune because he happened to be a
grandson of Edward S. Clark.

"Tell me," said the judge after a time, as if his mind had wandered to
other considerations, "about these California Clarks--what do you know
of them?"

The mason related for the judge's edification the scraps of family
history and biography that he could recollect. Adelle, who had come into
the room, listened to his story. Tom Clark might be limited in knowledge
of his family as he was in education, but he was certainly literal and
picturesque. He spared neither himself nor his brothers and sisters, nor
his remoter cousins. The one whose career seemed to interest him most
was that Stan Clark, the politician, who now represented Fresno County
in the State Legislature. There was a curious mixture of pride and
contempt in his feeling for this cousin, who had risen above the dead
level of local obscurity.

"He thinks almighty well of himself," he concluded his portrait; "but
there ain't a rottener peanut politician in the State of California, and
that's sayin' some. He got into the legislater by stringin' labor, and
now, of course, the S. P. owns him hide and clothes and toothpick. I
hear he's bought a block of stores in Fresno and is puttin' the dough
away thick. He don't need no Clark's Field! He's got the whole people of
California for his pickings."

The judge turned to Adelle laughingly.

"Your cousin doesn't seem to see any good reason why the California
Clarks should be chosen for Fortune's favor."

"Ain't one of 'em," the young man asserted emphatically, "so far as I
know, would know what to do with a hundred dollars, would be any better
off after a couple of years if he had it. That's gospel truth--and I
ain't exceptin' myself!" he added after a moment of sober reflection.

Adelle made no comment. She did not seem to be thinking along the same
line as the judge and the young mason. Since the ye