founded by an incident that seemed to him as convincing of her
identity as it was audacious. Lying on his pillow were a few dead
leaves of an odorous mountain fern, known only to the Sierras. They
were tied together by a narrow blue ribbon, and had evidently been
intended to attract his attention. As he took them in his hand, the
distinguishing subtle aroma of the little sylvan hollow in the hills
came to him like a memory and a revelation! He summoned the
chambermaid; she knew nothing of them, or indeed of any one who had
entered his room. He walked cautiously into the hall; the lady's
sitting-room door was open, the room was empty. "The occupant," said
the chambermaid, "had left that afternoon." He held the proof of her
identity in his hand, but she herself had vanished! That she had
recognized him there was now no doubt: had she divined the real object
of his quest, or had she accepted it as a mere sentimental gallantry at
the moment when she knew it was hopeless, and she herself was perfectly
safe from pursuit? In either event he had been duped. He did not know
whether to be piqued, angry,--or relieved of his irresolute quest.

Nevertheless, he spent the rest of the twilight and the early evening
in fruitlessly wandering through the one long thoroughfare of the town,
until it merged into the bosky Alameda, or spacious grove, that
connected it with Santa Luisa. By degrees his chagrin and
disappointment were forgotten in the memories of the past, evoked by
the familiar pathway. The moon was slowly riding overhead, and
silvering the carriage-way between the straight ebony lines of trees,
while the footpaths were diapered with black and white checkers. The
faint tinkling of a tram-car bell in the distance apprised him of one
of the few innovations of the past. The car was approaching him,
overtook him, and was passing, with its faintly illuminated windows,
when, glancing carelessly up, he beheld at one of them the profile of
the face which he had just thought he had lost forever!

He stopped for an instant, not in indecision this time, but in a grim
resolution to let no chance escape him now. The car was going slowly;
it was easy to board it now, but again the tinkle of the bell indicated
that it was stopping at the corner of a road beyond. He checked his
pace,--a lady alighted,--it was she! She turned into the cross-street,
darkened with the shadows of some low suburban tenement houses, and he
boldly fo