dance. I wonder what brings him here?"

The doors opened and Rosa Phillips entered, magnificently jewelled and
dressed in a rich silk of pearl grey. Elena stared, clutching at her
partner's arm.

"Oh, look!" she shrieked , "she is wearing my wedding dress. My wedding
dress which was stitched at the shop of Rosenthal the peddler, in
Sacramento, and which he was to bring me two weeks ago. I know it is
mine! There is the pearl passe-mentre on it that was my mother's. There
is none other like it in California!"

"So?" answered Rosa cooly, glancing down at the voluminous silken folds
of her robe. Then she stood waving her big fan, her large, dark eyes
roving across the throng.

"Mine Host" came quickly forward. "It is not permitted, senora, that you
- "

Rosa smiled cynically. "I, the silken hawk, came not to flutter your
nest of doves, senor. I came but for a little hour to meet a man who -
Ah, he is coming now. Sheriff Paul, I have that to tell you which - "

The sheriff offered his arm ceremoniously and they passed out of the
ballroom. Tender hearted Elena was conscience stricken. She dropped her
lover's arm and darted after them through the big doors.

"Oh, I am sorry, I did not mean - please, Sheriff Paul, she may have
the dress, poor thing! But for her, I should have had no man to marry on
my wedding day next week."