d.

"You're hopelessly won to the opposition," he declared. "Leave your
check for me, and I'll pay it. And if your unknown knight returns to
the observation-car, ask him about those confounded turkeys."

VI

But the unknown knight had not returned to the observation-car until
the long train was sliding into Sespe, and Kay had no time to satisfy
her thirst for information anent young turkeys. With unexpected
garrulity, he had introduced himself; with the receipt of this
information, she had been rendered speechless, first with surprise, and
then with distress as her alert mind swiftly encompassed the pitiful
awakening that was coming to this joyous home-comer. Before she could
master her emotions, he was disappearing over the brass rail at the end
of the observation-car; even as he waved her a debonair farewell, she
caught the look of surprise and puzzlement in his black eyes.
Wherefore, she knew the quick tears had betrayed her.

"Oh, you poor fellow!" she whispered to herself, as she dabbed at her
eyes with a wisp of a lace handkerchief. "What a tragedy!"

What a tragedy, indeed!

She had never been in the San Gregorio, and to-day was to mark her
first visit to the Rancho Palomar, although her father and mother and
the servants had been occupying the Farrel hacienda for the past two
months. Of the beauty of that valley, of the charm of that ancient
seat, she had heard much from her parents; if they could be so
enthusiastic about it in two short months, how tremendously attached to
it must be this cheerful Don Mike, who had been born and raised there,
who was familiar with every foot of it, and doubtless cherished every
tradition connected with it. He had imagination, and in imaginative
people wounds drive deep and are hard to heal; he loved this land of
his, not with the passive loyalty of the average American citizen, but
with the strange, passionate intensity of the native Californian for
his state. She had met many Californians, and, in this one particular,
they had all been alike. No matter how far they had wandered from the
Golden West, no matter how long or how pleasant had been their exile,
they yearned, with a great yearning, for that intangible something that
all Californians feel but can never explain--which is found nowhere
save in this land of romance and plenty, of hearty good will, of life
lived without too great effort, and wherein the desire to play gives
birth to that large and ki