oblivious of it, allowed it to drop without the least concern, and
eventually flew away with an abstracted air, as if he had been
another bird entirely. The paper got into a manzanita bush, where
it remained suspended until the evening, when, being dislodged by a
passing wild-cat on its way to Mulrady's hen-roost, it gave that
delicately sensitive marauder such a turn that she fled into the
adjacent county.

But the troubles of the squirrel were not yet over. On the
following day the young man who had accompanied the young woman
returned to the trunk, and the squirrel had barely time to make his
escape before the impatient visitor approached the opening of the
cavity, peered into it, and even passed his hand through its
recesses. The delight visible upon his anxious and serious face at
the disappearance of the letter, and the apparent proof that it had
been called for, showed him to have been its original depositor,
and probably awakened a remorseful recollection in the dark bosom
of the omnipresent crow, who uttered a conscious-stricken croak
from the bough above him. But the young man quickly disappeared
again, and the squirrel was once more left in undisputed
possession.

A week passed. A weary, anxious interval to Don Caesar, who had
neither seen nor heard from Mamie since their last meeting. Too
conscious of his own self-respect to call at the house after the
equivocal conduct of Mrs. Mulrady, and too proud to haunt the lanes
and approaches in the hope of meeting her daughter, like an
ordinary lover, he hid his gloomy thoughts in the monastic shadows
of the courtyard at Los Gatos, or found relief in furious riding at
night and early morning on the highway. Once or twice the up-stage