Mamie had not forgotten that, scarcely a month ago, even had she
loved the man before her no more than she did at present, she would
still have been thrilled with delight at these words! Even now she
was moved--conscious as she had become that the "state" of a bride
of the Alvarados was not all she had imagined, and that the bare
adobe court of Los Gatos was open to the sky and the free criticism
of Sacramento capitalists!

"Yes, dear," she murmured with a half childlike pleasure, that lit
up her face and eyes so innocently that it stopped any minute
investigation into its origin and real meaning. "Yes, dear; but we
need not have a fuss made about it at present, and perhaps put ma
against us. She wouldn't hear of our marrying now; and she might
forbid our engagement."

"But you are going away."

"I should have to go to New York or Europe FIRST, you know," she
answered, naively, "even if it were all settled. I should have to
get things! One couldn't be decent here."

With the recollection of the pink cotton gown, in which she had
first pledged her troth to him, before his eyes, he said, "But you
are charming now. You cannot be more so to me. If I am satisfied,
little one, with you as you are, let us go together, and then you
can get dresses to please others."

She had not expected this importunity. Really, if it came to this,
she might have engaged herself to some one like Slinn; he at least