money-making, even while they mistrusted his judgment. A man still well
preserved, and free from weakening vices, he was a dangerous rival to
younger and faster San Francisco, in the eyes of the sex, who knew how
to value a repose they did not themselves possess.

Suddenly Mr. Carr announced his intention of proceeding to Sacramento,
on further business of the mine, leaving his two daughters in the family
of a wealthy friend until he should return for them. He opposed their
ready suggestion to return to Devil's Ford with a new and unnecessary
inflexibility: he even met their compromise to accompany him to
Sacramento with equal decision.

"You will be only in my way," he said curtly. "Enjoy yourselves here
while you can."

Thus left to themselves, they tried to accept his advice. Possibly some
slight reaction to their previous disappointment may have already set
in; perhaps they felt any distraction to be a relief to their anxiety
about their father. They went out more; they frequented concerts and
parties; they accepted, with their host and his family, an invitation to
one of those opulent and barbaric entertainments with which a noted San
Francisco millionaire distracted his rare moments of reflection in his
gorgeous palace on the hills. Here they could at least be once more in
the country they loved, albeit of a milder and less heroic type, and a
little degraded by the overlapping tinsel and scattered spangles of the
palace.

It was a three days' fete; the style and choice of amusements left to
the guests, and an equal and active participation by no means necessary
or indispensable. Consequently, when Christie and Jessie Carr proposed