t wasn't in my line, you see,
this entertaining goddesses; though, doubtless, in this way, before now,
men have entertained angels unawares. You shall judge whether I did.

"What with reading, eating together, singing--she sang 'Kate Kearney'
for me, and her voice was glorious--our acquaintance ripened very fast.
Finally, I conquered my embarrassment so far as to ask her some
questions about herself, and she told me that she was of a good New
England family, raised in affluence, well educated, accomplished, but by
a freak of fortune, reduced to poverty: that she had come to California
resolved to get money, and had got it. She went from camp to camp of the
miners with stationery, and other trifling articles needed by them; sold
them these things, wrote letters for them, sang to them, nursed them
when sick, or carried letters express to San Francisco, to be mailed.
For all these services, she received high prices, and had also had a
good deal of gold given to her in specimens. I asked her if she liked
that kind of a life, so contrary to her early training. She answered me:
'It's not what we choose that we select to do in this world, but what
chooses us to do it. I have made a competency, and gained a rich and
varied experience. If life is not what I once dreamed it was, I am
content.' But she sighed as she said it, and I couldn't believe in her
content."

"You have not told us yet what motives brought her to you," I remarked,
in an interval of silence.

"No; she hadn't told me herself, then. By and by, I asked her, in my
green kind of way, what brought her to see _me_. I never shall forget
the smile with which she turned to answer me. We were sitting quite
close: it never was in my nature, when once acquainted with a woman, to
keep away from her. Her garments brushed my knees; occasionally, in the
enthusiasm of talk, I leaned near her cheek. You know how it was. I was
thinking of the useless pegs in my house down in the valley: 'You will
be disappointed,' she said, 'when you learn that I came to do you a real
service.' And then she went on to relate that, having occasion to pass
the night at a certain place not many miles away, she had overheard
through the thin partitions of the house, the description of my fort, an
account of my wealth, real or supposed, and a plan for my murder and
robbery. The would-be murderer was so described as to make it quite
certain that it was he whom I had fed, clothed, and sent away rejoic