en't trees but people--either nymphs or
witches--and the rest of the party humoured her, talking nonsense about
Greece and goddesses. He thought the pleasure of a motor trip was "going
some"; but his passengers seemed to have other ideas. They were idiots, of
course, but they seemed mighty happy.

Angela, however, was less happy than the others, less happy than she tried
to seem. She had a dim idea that, if she had come with Nick, she would
have thought this the most beautiful place on earth, and that she had
found the ideal spot for a home. As it was, in spite of all the
loveliness, she was not sure of herself, or what she wanted. This made her
ashamed. She was as self-conscious as Nick had been yesterday, and in
sheer panic fear lest "they" should think she was pining for Hilliard, or
grieving over some stupid quarrel, she said that she would certainly buy
land in the forest. She must not lose such a chance. If for any reason she
should change her mind, she could always sell, couldn't she? On this point
Falconer reassured her. "You can sell to me," he laughed in the
light-hearted way that surprised the chauffeur. "You build a house and
furnish it, and take all the trouble, and I'll buy it from you--to live in
myself when I want to imagine I'm in Greece or Sicily, as I do sometimes
when I'm too busy to go there." And he looked at Sonia.

Though he laughed, he was in earnest, and Angela began to feel that she
might want to keep her house--if she built it. She saw herself walking
under the strange dark trees to the gray rocks, to look at the seals. Nick
was with her.... She hurried to think of something else. Nick would not be
here. They would have forgotten each other by the time her house was
built. Perhaps he would be married to his Mrs. Gaylor.

[Illustration: "Angela was enchanted with the peninsula of Monterey"]

After all it did not seem so romantic to have a place where she could go
and look at some seals, alone. Stupid! Because she had come to California
on purpose to have a place where she could be alone.

"How absurd women, are!" she thought, irritably. "As soon as we can have
what we want, we don't want it. I suppose it must be that. Now I long for
all kinds of new things I can't possibly have, which would be very bad for
me if I could."

After lunching at the wonderful Club House built of logs, they went back
by way of Monterey, and in the sleepy old town which holds more California
history than any oth