pefied her. The
lawyer wrote that there happened to be in court a suit concerning the
boundaries of an old Spanish land grant, which, it was claimed,
extended north of the Purgatory River, and touched upon her own and
other neighboring property. The lawyer wrote that matters would
probably be settled in favor of the present landholders, but that, so
long as litigation pended, all titles were so clouded as to make any
questions of loans untenable.

Jane felt as if a ruthless destiny were pressing her home. She looked
at Lola, and her heart sank at the girl's air of springlike happiness
and hope. Must these sweet hours be broken upon with a tale of
impending penury?

Lola of late had seemed gentler, and the silent, stony moods were
leaving her, together with her childish impulse toward sudden anger. So
much Jane saw. Lola herself was sensible of a changing sway of feeling
which she did not seek to understand. To read of a noble deed brought
swift tears to her eyes in these days of mutation, and stirred her to
emulative dreams.

She did not know what power of action lay in her; but there seemed to
be some vital promise in the eager essence of spirit which spread
before her such visions of beautiful enterprise. Lola did not realize
how favorable to ripening character was the atmosphere in which she
lived. She could not yet know how she had been impressed by the simple
page of plain, undramatic kindness and generosity which Jane's life
opened daily to her eyes.

One day Jane spoke to her sadly.

"Lola," she said, "I'm afraid there won't be enough money to send you
away to school this year."

"But papa never denies me anything, _tia_."

"I know, dear."

"How funny you say that! Is--has he--lost his money, _tia_? You're
keeping something from me!"

"Lola," said Jane, in a moved voice, "I don't know a great deal about
your father's means. I can't say they're less than they were; but
there's reasons--why I'm afraid you can't--go to Pueblo this coming
fall. No, Lola--don't ask me any questions--I can't speak out! I've
done wrong! I can't say any more!" and to Lola's surprise she hurried
out of the room.

Never before had Lola witnessed in Jane such confusion and distress.
The sight bewildered and troubled her so sorely as for the moment to
exclude from mind the bearing upon her own future of Jane's ambiguous,
faltering words. Something was surely amiss; but the girl as yet fully
realized only one fact--that tia, al