soap and eau de Cologne with which Whiskey Dick was in the habit of
gracefully effacing the traces of dissipation made known his presence.
In spite of a new suit of clothes, whose pristine folds refused to
adapt themselves entirely to the contour of his figure, he was somewhat
subdued by the unexpected elegance of the drawing-room of Christie's
host. But a glance at Christie's sad but gracious face quickly reassured
him. Taking from his hat a three-cornered parcel, he unfolded a
handsome saffrona rose, which he gravely presented to her. Having
thus reestablished his position, he sank elegantly into a tete-a-tete
ottoman. Finding the position inconvenient to face Christie, who had
seated herself on a chair, he transferred himself to the other side of
the ottoman, and addressed her over its back as from a pulpit.

"Is this really a fortunate accident, Mr. Hall, or did you try to find
us?" said Christie pleasantly.

"Partly promiskuss, and partly coincident, Miss Christie, one up and
t'other down," said Dick lightly. "Work being slack at present at
Devil's Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and dip into
the vortex o' fash'nable society and out again." He lightly waved a
new handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like intrusion. "This yer
minglin' with the bo-tong is apt to be wearisome, ez you and me knows,
unless combined with experience and judgment. So when them boys up
there allows that there's a little too much fash'nable society and San
Francisco capital and high-falutin' about the future goin' on fer square
surface mining, I sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the
pint. The pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's
Ford. When a fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon--like Miss
Carr--and, so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to know
who she is. And when people say that's the accomplished daughter o' the