refinement of speech which, together with her beauty, caused the uncouth
inhabitants of the place to regard her with something of awe, and as if
they thought she belonged to an entirely different sphere from them.

Mr. Abbot owned a claim in the gold and silver region there, which he
asserted that he was going to work himself, much to the surprise of the
rough miners, for he was a frail looking man.

He built a small but very convenient house, containing five rooms, which,
with the few elegancies he had brought with him, for his child's sake, and
which proclaimed that the strangers had been accustomed to the luxuries of
life heretofore, became the pride and wonder of the settlement.

The house was painted inside and out; there were carpets upon the floors,
draperies at the windows, vases and ornaments on the mantels, pictures on
the walls. But though all the furnishings were of the simplest and
cheapest, yet, to the rude and unaccustomed people about them, their home
seemed a veritable palace.

Another mystery and evidence of superiority was the grave and
self-contained Chinaman who came with them, and was installed as cook and
servant in general in the small kitchen, and who waited upon the young
lady of the house with so much respect and deference.

Here the father and daughter lived in the utmost seclusion. Virgie never
was seen outside her home unless accompanied by her father or servant, and
Mr. Abbot, when not in the mine, devoted himself wholly to his child.

They made no friends, and did not mingle at all with those about them,
although they were always kind and courteous to every one, and thus won