Caesar, she added, "My sister, Vashti, means that father remembers
more what happened before he came to California, when we were quite
young, than he does of the interval that elapsed. Dr. Duchesne
says it's a singular case. He thinks that, with his present
progress, he will recover the perfect use of his limbs; though his
memory may never come back again."

"Unless-- You forget what the doctor told us this morning,"
interrupted Vashti again, briskly.

"I was going to say it," said Esther, a little curtly. "UNLESS he
has another stroke. Then he will either die or recover his mind
entirely."

Don Caesar glanced at the bright faces, a trifle heightened in
color by their eager recital and the slight rivalry of narration,
and looked grave. He was a little shocked at a certain lack of
sympathy and tenderness towards their unhappy parent. They seemed
to him not only to have caught that dry, curious toleration of
helplessness which characterizes even relationship in its
attendance upon chronic suffering and weakness, but to have
acquired an unconscious habit of turning it to account. In his
present sensitive condition, he even fancied that they flirted
mildly over their parent's infirmity.

"My brother Harry has gone to Red Dog," continued Esther; "he'll be
right sorry to have missed you. Mrs. Mulrady spoke to him about
you; you seem to have been great friends. I s'pose you knew her
daughter, Mamie; I hear she is very pretty."