years of cultivation and habitation that had warmed and enriched
the soil, and evoked the climbing vines and roses that already hid
its unpainted boards, rounded its hard outlines, and gave
projection and shadow from the pitiless glare of a summer's long
sun, or broke the steady beating of the winter rains. It was true
that pea and bean poles surrounded it on one side, and the only
access to the house was through the cabbage rows that once were the
pride and sustenance of the Mulradys. It was this fact, more than
any other, that had impelled Mrs. Mulrady to abandon its site; she
did not like to read the history of their humble origin reflected
in the faces of their visitors as they entered.

Don Caesar tied his horse to the fence, and hurriedly approached
the house. The door, however, hospitably opened when he was a few
paces from it, and when he reached the threshold he found himself
unexpectedly in the presence of two pretty girls. They were
evidently Slinn's sisters, whom he had neither thought of nor
included in the meeting he had prepared. In spite of his
preoccupation, he felt himself suddenly embarrassed, not only by
the actual distinction of their beauty, but by a kind of likeness
that they seemed to bear to Mamie.

"We saw you coming," said the elder, unaffectedly. "You are Don
Caesar Alvarado. My brother has spoken of you."

The words recalled Don Caesar to himself and a sense of courtesy.
He was not here to quarrel with these fair strangers at their first
meeting; he must seek Slinn elsewhere, and at another time. The
frankness of his reception and the allusion to their brother made
it appear impossible that they should be either a party to his