"I'd so much rather stay with you. I don't like to leave you now."

"I shall be busy and you'll be back for dinner."

"I'd like to look for that paper--the title."

"When you come back."

"Good-by, then, and don't do any hard work. I'll send the children up
to stay around the house. That will be one worry off your mind."

When she had again sprung into her saddle, Lady Jess apologized for
keeping Mr. Hale so long, and suggested:

"Suppose we ride first to the mines, while it is coolest. Then come
around by the olive and orange orchards. We can rest at the lemon house
awhile. It's interesting to see how they are cared for, or so most
strangers think."

"Anything and anywhere suits me, for I'm full of curiosity about
Sobrante. How did your father happen to take up so many different lines
of industry?"

"Oh, they were all his 'experiments.' You see he wanted to do good
to some sorts of people that nobody else seemed much interested in.
Men that were getting old and were not rich or well. He was born in
California, and he always thought it the land where everybody could
find a place if he only had a chance. He went to New York and lived a
long time, and he and mother were married there. He'd once ridden over
this valley, on a horseback trip--just like yours, maybe--and after that
he always meant to buy it if he could. So, when he began to lose his
own health he came right away. He hadn't much money himself, but he
worked and mother helped, and he'd paid for it all before he died. It
was the title deed which proved it, that he had just brought home and
I could not find last night. Though, of course, I shall find it yet,"
she added confidently.

"I hope so, my child. I devotedly hope so. Yet if it was duly recorded
the matter should easily be set right."

Jessica's face fell.

"I don't believe it was. He said something about that, I didn't
understand it quite, but I know he said 'recorded' and that he meant to
have it done the next time he went to Los Angeles. But--he didn't
ever go."

The lawyer's face grew still more serious. Something of the love with
which she inspired everybody was already in his heart for this little
maid, and thoughts of his own young daughters, threatened with the
misfortune which menaced her, stirred him to fresh regret for the mission
he had undertaken.

They had now turned their horses' heads toward the foothills on the
north and he asked:

"What are these 'mines' of which you s