f
years had triumphed over the changes of ephemeral seasons. But would
others see it with his eyes? Would his practical, housekeeping aunt, and
his pretty modern cousin--

"Well, what do you say? Speak the word, and you can go into it with your
folks to-morrow. And I reckon you won't want to take anything either,
for you'll find everything there--just as the old Don left it. I don't
want it; the land is good enough for me; I shall have my vaqueros and
rancheros to look after the crops and the cattle, and they won't trouble
you, for their sheds and barns will be two miles away. You can stay
there as long as you like, and go when you choose. You might like to try
it for a spell; it's all the same to me. But I should think it the sort
of thing a man like you would fancy, and it seems the right thing to
have you there. Well,--what shall it be? Is it a go?"

Dick knew that the speaker was sincere. It was an offer perfectly
characteristic of his friend, the Western millionaire, who had halted
by his side. And he knew also that the slow lifting of his bridle-rein,
preparatory to starting forward again, was the business-like gesture of
a man who wasted no time even over his acts of impulsive liberality.
In another moment he would dismiss the unaccepted offer from his
mind--without concern and without resentment.

"Thank you--it is a go," said Dick gratefully.

Nevertheless, when he reached his own little home in the outskirts of
San Francisco that night, he was a trifle nervous in confiding to the
lady, who was at once his aunt and housekeeper, the fact that he was
now the possessor of a huge mansion in whose patio alone the little
eight-roomed villa where they had lived contentedly might be casually
dropped. "You see, Aunt Viney," he hurriedly explained, "it would have
been so ungrateful to have refused him--and it really was an offer as
spontaneous as it was liberal. And then, you see, we need occupy only a
part of the casa."

"And who will look after the other part?" said Aunt Viney grimly. "That
will have to be kept tidy, too; and the servants for such a house, where
in heaven are they to come from? Or do they go with it?"

"No," said Dick quickly; "the servants left with their old master, when
Ringstone bought the property. But we'll find servants enough in the
neighborhood--Mexican peons and Indians, you know."

Aunt Viney sniffed. "And you'll have to entertain--if it's a big house.
There are all your Spanish neig