almost primitive, conditions environing the girl,
possessed a power to stir the depths of his emotions
as no artful reinforcement to passion had ever
done. He forgot the wall. His ego melted in a
sense of complete union and happiness. Even when
they returned to earth and discussed the dubious
future, he was conscious of an odd resignation,
very alien in his nature, not only to the barrier but
to all the strange conditions of his wooing. He
had felt something of this before, although less defi-
nitely, and to-night he concluded that she had the
gift of clothing the inevitable with the semblance
and the sweetness of choice; and wondered how
long it would be able to skirt the arid steppes of
philosophy.

She told him that she had talked daily with
Father Abella. "He will say nothing to admit he is
weakening, but I feel sure he has realized not only
that our marriage will be for the best interests of
California, but that to forbid it would wreck my
life; and from this responsibility he shrinks. I can
see it in his kind, shrewd, perplexed eyes, in the
hesitating inflections of his voice, to say nothing of
the poor arguments he advances to mine. What of
my father and mother?"

"They look troubled, almost ill, but nothing could
exceed their kindness to me, although they have
pointedly given me no opportunity to introduce the