"Died while speeding home to Russia, falling from a fractious horse.
Left a sweetheart, too, they tell me. Married, I suppose, of course!

"Lives she yet?" A deathlike silence fell on banquet, guests, and hall,
And a trembling figure rising fixed the awestruck gaze of all.

Two black eyes in darkened orbits gleamed beneath the nun's white
hood[17];
Black serge hid the wasted figure, bowed and stricken where it stood.

"Lives she yet?" Sir George repeated. All were hushed as Concha drew
Closer yet her nun's attire. "Senor, pardon, she died, too!"



[1] Pronounced Hoo-neep-ero, with the accent on the second syllable.

[2] The best pen-picture of San Francisco just before the discovery of
gold that I know of is that given by one who was an eye-witness: "At
that time (July, 1847), what is now called San Francisco was called
Yerba Buena. A naval officer, Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett, its
first Alcalde, had caused it to be surveyed and laid out into blocks and
lots, which were being sold at sixteen dollars a lot of fifty varas
square; the understanding being that no single person could purchase of
the Alcalde more than one in-lot of fifty varas, and one out-lot of a
hundred varas. Folsom, however, got his clerks, orderlies, etc., to buy
lots, and they, for a small consideration, conveyed them to him, so that
he was nominally the owner of a good many lots. Lieutenant Halleck had
bought one of each kind, and so had Warner. Many naval officers had also
invested, and Captain Folsom advised me to buy some, but I felt actually