At the same moment, it flashed across her mind that, if they were
like the man before her, they might prove disagreeably independent
and critical. "Is your father in business?" she asked.

He shook his head. After a pause, he said, punctuating his
sentences with the point of his stick in the soft dust, "He is
paralyzed, and out of his mind, Miss Mulrady. I came to California
to seek him, as all news of him ceased three years since; and I
found him only two weeks ago, alone, friendless--an unrecognized
pauper in the county hospital."

"Two weeks ago? That was when I went to Sacramento."

"Very probably."

"It must have been very shocking to you?"

"It was."

"I should think you'd feel real bad?"

"I do, at times." He smiled, and laid his stick on the stone.
"You now see, Miss Mulrady, how necessary to me is this good
fortune that you don't think me worthy of. Meantime I must try to
make a home for them at Rough-and-Ready."

Miss Mulrady put down her knee and her parasol. "We mustn't stay
here much longer, you know."

"Why?"