Harry told me so. Give me her money and her looks, and you
wouldn't catch me hanging round these diggings--goin' to choir
meetings Saturdays, church Sundays, and buggy-riding once a month--
for society! No--Mamie's head was level--you bet!"

Don Caesar rose hurriedly. They would present his compliments to
their father, and he would endeavor to find their brother at Red
Dog. He, alas! had neither father, mother, nor sister, but if they
would receive his aunt, the Dona Inez Sepulvida, the next Sunday,
when she came from mass, she should be honored and he would be
delighted. It required all his self-possession to deliver himself
of this formal courtesy before he could take his leave, and on the
back of his mustang give way to the rage, disgust and hatred of
everything connected with Mamie that filled his heart. Conscious
of his disturbance, but not entirely appreciating their own share
in it, the two girls somewhat wickedly prolonged the interview by
following him into the garden.

"Well, if you MUST leave now," said Esther, at last, languidly, "it
ain't much out of your way to go down through the garden and take a
look at pa as you go. He's somewhere down there, near the woods,
and we don't like to leave him alone too long. You might pass the
time of day with him; see if he's right side up. Vashti and I have
got a heap of things to fix here yet; but if anything's wrong with
him, you can call us. So-long."

Don Caesar was about to excuse himself hurriedly; but that sudden
and acute perception of all kindred sorrow which belongs to refined
suffering, checked his speech. The loneliness of the helpless old
man in this atmosphere of active and youthful selfishness touched