ense of
danger gave an added zest to the impersonal nature of his studies. He
subscribed for all the San Francisco newspapers and for those of his own
and the adjoining counties. He was not conscious of any mounting love
for California, but here his lines were cast, and California was as good
a stepping-stone as another. If her politics were hideous he had not
made them, and his reviving faith in his star suggested that he may have
been born to redeem them. With the polishing up of the rustier parts of
his mind even his eyes grew brighter, he moved more quickly, he began to
feel all intellect once more, propelled by a body that was daily gaining
in red and vigorous blood. Judge Leslie was so delighted with his rapid
progress and his exceptionally retentive and classifying memory that he
assured everybody he met in Rosewater and St. Peter that he was training
a second Alexander Hamilton for the bar of the United States.

XVII

It was four days after the party that Isabel, walking over the low hills
among her chickens, in deep converse with her Abraham, was informed by
Chuma that Mrs. Thomas Colton had driven out to call upon her. She found
Anabel not in the house but seated before the front door in a smart new
basket trap, and as smart herself in coat and hat and gloves uniformly
dust-colored. She made a wry face at Isabel's overalls, but kissed her
affectionately.

"This is my birthday," she announced, "and this is a surprise from
Tom--horse, harness, and all. I only had to give him three broad hints.
I wanted to show it to you first, and besides there is something I must
talk to you about--very important!"

She assumed a matronly and mysterious air and dropped her voice. "I
suppose Mr. Gwynne does not call so early?"

"Rarely. Won't you get out and stay to lunch?"

"Tom would never forgive me. He is sure to bring me another surprise at
noon--it will arrive on the 11.30--a long chain made of every variety of
tourmalines set in silver. But I couldn't wait any longer to have a talk
with you about Mr. Gwynne. Until I saw you two together the other night
I had all sorts of romantic plans in my head. It seemed just the right
thing--_you_ are so different from everybody else; and then having met
him in England among all those old castles, and everything! I was sure
he would have enough of California in a year and then I should visit you
in England, and after a while you would marry Frances to a duke. But I
see