Although Don Caesar was now satisfied that the Slinns knew nothing
of Mamie's singular behavior to him, he felt embarrassed by this
conversation. "Miss Mulrady is very pretty," he said, with grave
courtesy; "it is a custom of her race. She left suddenly," he
added with affected calmness.

"I reckon she did calculate to stay here longer--so her mother
said; but the whole thing was settled a week ago. I know my
brother was quite surprised to hear from Mr. Mulrady that if we
were going to decide about this house we must do it at once; he had
an idea himself about moving out of the big one into this when they
left."

"Mamie Mulrady hadn't much to keep her here, considerin' the money
and the good looks she has, I reckon," said Vashti. "She isn't the
sort of girl to throw herself away in the wilderness, when she can
pick and choose elsewhere. I only wonder she ever come back from
Sacramento. They talk about papa Mulrady having BUSINESS at San
Francisco, and THAT hurrying them off! Depend upon it, that
'business' was Mamie herself. Her wish is gospel to them. If
she'd wanted to stay and have a farewell party, old Mulrady's
business would have been nowhere."

"Ain't you a little rough on Mamie," said Esther, who had been
quietly watching the young man's face with her large languid eyes,
"considering that we don't know her, and haven't even the right of
friends to criticise?"

"I don't call it rough," returned Vashti, frankly, "for I'd do the
same if I were in her shoes--and they're four-and-a-halves, for