he young ladies that
the Captain had come down from the Fort particularly to pay court to
Miss Amita, the beauty."

"Possibly. But that wouldn't prevent Maruja from flirting with him."

"Eh! but are you not mistaken, Mr. Raymond? Certainly a more quiet,
modest, and demure young lassie I never met."

"That's because she sat out two waltzes with you, and let you do the
talking, while she simply listened."

The elder man's fresh color for an instant heightened, but he recovered
himself with a good-humored laugh. "Likely--likely. She's a capital
good listener."

"You're not the first man that found her eloquent. Stanton, your
banking friend, who never talks of anything but mines and stocks, says
she's the only woman who has any conversation; and we can all swear
that she never said two words to him the whole time she sat next to him
at dinner. But she looked at him as if she had. Why, man, woman, and
child all give her credit for any grace that pleases themselves. And
why? Because she's clever enough not to practice any one of them--as
graces. I don't know the girl that claims less and gets more. For
instance, you don't call her pretty?" ...

"Wait a bit. Ye'll not get on so fast, my young friend; I'm not
prepared to say that she's not," returned the Scotchman, with
good-humored yet serious caution.

"But you would have been prepared yesterday, and have said it. She can
produce the effect of the prettiest girl here, and without challenging
comparison. Nobody thinks of her--everybody experiences her."

"You're an enthusiast, Mr. Raymond. As an habitue of the house, of
course, you--"

"Oh, my time came with the rest," laughed the young man, with
unaffected frankness. "It's about two years ago now."

"I see--you were not a marrying man."

"Pardon me--it was because I was."

The Scotchman looked at him curiously.

"Maruja is an heiress. I am a mining engineer."

"But, my dear fellow, I thought that in your country--"

"In MY country, yes. But we are standing on a bit of old Spain. This
land was given to Dona Maria Saltonstall's ancestors by Charles V.
Look around you. This veranda, this larger shell of the ancient casa,
is the work of the old Salem whaling captain that she married, and is
all that is American here. But the heart of the house, as well as the
life that circles around the old patio, is Spanish. The Dona's family,
the Estudillos and Guitierrez, always looked down upon this all