lit by immense dark eyes, was radiant, and though she leaned lightly
on a stick, it seemed that this was a mere concession to a doctor's order,
or a habit not quite forgotten.

"This is the lady I told you of," Falconer said to Angela, when he had
heard the story of the adventure. "I told her about you, too, and she
would sit up to see you. So would your maid, of course, who has been in a
great state of anxiety--and even the cat was depressed. Mademoiselle
Dobieski has been trying to console your poor Irish girl."

"I could not bear her to be unhappy," said the singer, in a voice of a
curiously thrilling quality. "I am so happy myself! This is the best day
of my life. I don't want it to end."

"The doctor has told her she will be cured," Falconer explained. "You can
guess whether it has been a happy day for me! And she has promised to be
my wife. It was in the Mission church of San Miguel, bless him!"

"Then it was you who forgot the key in the church door!" exclaimed Angela.
"I felt it was, somehow. And no wonder you forgot!" She threw a smiling
glance at Nick.

Nick said nothing, but he too blessed San Miguel. He knew nothing about
the bodily ailments which brought people to sulphur springs, but he
thought that no torture of the body could be worse than jealousy; and of
that pain San Miguel had in a moment cured him.

He blessed also the owl which had rustled and made Angela want him near
her.

"I believe I'll catch it, and have it tamed at my place," he said to
himself. "I'll give it a good time all the rest of its life."

And next morning early, while Angela slept, he motored out again to the
Mission, found the Padre, caught the owl which was young and dazed,
brought it to the hotel, and hired a boy to take it by train to
Bakersfield.

XVI

ANGELA AT HER WORST

But something had happened to Angela next day. That was clear, from her
manner. What had changed her from a clinging, sweetly mid-Victorian girl
into a reserved, coldly polite woman, Nick could not imagine. Her cool
"Good morning" gave the first sign of a fallen temperature. His way of
beginning the day was suited to the ending of yesterday: hers denied all
that made yesterday memorable. Could it be that in recalling the scene in
the Mission church, Mrs. May disapproved of something he had said, or some
blundering act, and wished to "put him in his place"? Or--still more
terrible--was she unhappy about Falconer? Nick was confused, misera