er sixty dollars every month, taken from the wages
that he had earned on the ranch.

Desnoyers' entrance into the family made his father-in-law pay less
attention to business.

City life, with all its untried enchantments and snares, now attracted
Madariaga, and he began to speak with contempt of country women, poorly
groomed and inspiring him with disgust. He had given up his cowboy
attire, and was displaying with childish satisfaction, the new suits
in which a tailor of the Capital was trying to disguise him. When Elena
wished to accompany him to Buenos Aires, he would wriggle out of it,
trumping up some absorbing business. "No; you go with your mother."

The fate of his fields and flocks gave him no uneasiness. His fortune,
managed by Desnoyers, was in good hands.

"He is very serious," again affirmed the old Spaniard to his family
assembled in the dining roam--"as serious as I am. . . . Nobody can make
a fool of him!"

And finally the Frenchman concluded that when his father-in-law spoke of
seriousness he was referring to his strength of character. According to
the spontaneous declaration of Madariaga, he had, from the very first
day that he had dealings with Desnoyers, perceived in him a nature
like his own, more hard and firm perhaps, but without splurges
of eccentricities. On this account he had treated him with such
extraordinary circumspection, foreseeing that a clash between the
two could never be adjusted. Their only disagreements were about
the expenses established by Madariaga during his regime. Since the
son-in-law was managing the ranches, the work was costing less, and
the people working more diligently;--and that, too, without yells, and
without strong words and deeds, with only his presence and brief orders.

The old man was the only one defending the capricious system of a
blow followed by a gift. He revolted against a minute and mechanical
administration, always the same, without any arbitrary extravagance or
good-natured tyranny. Very frequently some of the half-breed peons whom
a malicious public supposed to be closely related to the ranchman, would
present themselves before Desnoyers with, "Senor Manager, the old Patron
say that you are to give me five dollars." The Senor Manager would
refuse, and soon after Madariaga would rush in in a furious temper, but
measuring his words, nevertheless, remembering that his son-in-law's
disposition was as serious as his own.

"I like you very much, my