and still happier to know how to earn it as fairly," said Somers to his
fair companion.

"But is his skill entirely appreciated here?" she asked.

"Perfectly," responded Somers. "Our friend from Siskyou over there
appreciates that 'pate' which he cannot name as well as I do. Rushbrook
himself is the only exception, yet I fancy that even HIS simplicity and
regularity in feeding is as much a matter of business with him as
any defect in his earlier education. In his eyes, his chef's greatest
qualification is his promptness and fertility. Have you noticed that
ornament before you?" pointing to an elaborate confection. "It bears
your initials, you see. It was conceived and executed since you
arrived--rather, I should say, since it was known that you would honor
us with your company. The greatest difficulty encountered was to find
out what your initials were."

"And I suppose," mischievously added the young girl to her
acknowledgments, "that the same fertile mind which conceived the design
eventually provided the initials?"

"That is our secret," responded Somers, with affected gravity.

The wines were of characteristic expensiveness, and provoked the same
general comment. Rushbrook seldom drank wine; Somers had selected
it. But the barbaric opulence of the entertainment culminated in the
Californian fruits, piled in pyramids on silver dishes, gorgeous and
unreal in their size and painted beauty, and the two Divas smiled over
a basket of grapes and peaches as outrageous in dimensions and glaring
color as any pasteboard banquet at which they had professionally