her hand.

"I have followed your excellency," she said. "I
saw you leave the Juno, and as I am often up at
this hour, and as no one else ever is, my father
ignores the fact that I sometimes ride alone. I have
never come as far as this before, but there is some-
thing I wish to say to you, and there is no oppor-
tunity at home. I asked Santiago to find me one
last night, but he was in a bad temper and would
not. Men! However--I suppose you have heard
nothing of the cargo?"

"I have not," said Rezanov grimly, although
acutely sensible that the subject suited neither his
mood nor the hour.

"But the Governor has! Madre de Dios! all the
women of the Presidio and the Mission have pes-
tered him. They are sick with jealousy at the
shawls you gave us that day--those that did not go
to the ship. How clever of your excellency to give
us just enough for ourselves and nothing for our
friends! And those that went want more and more.
They have called upon him--one, two, four, and
alone. They have wept and scolded and pleaded. I
did not know until yesterday that your commissary
had also shown the things to the priests from San
Jose--Father Jose Uria and Father Pedro de la
Cueva. They and the priests of San Francisco have