er pretty lashes heavenwards, as she
drew a shawl tightly round her shoulders.

"Has anything happened. You look strange," said Carroll, drawing
closer to her.

Here eyes were sparkling, but she was very pale.

"Nothing, nothing!" she said, hastily, glancing at the grain again.

"If it were not that the haste would have been absolutely indecent, I
should say that the late Doctor had made you a ghostly visit," said
Raymond, looking at her curiously.

"He would have been polite enough not to have commented on my looks,"
said Maruja. "Am I really such a fright?"

Carroll thought he had never seen her so beautiful. Her eyelids were
quivering over their fires as if they had been brushed by the passing
wing of a strong passion.

"What are you thinking of?" said Carroll, as they drove on.

She was thinking that the stranger had looked at her admiringly, and
that his eyes were blue. But she looked quietly into her lover's face,
and said, sweetly, "Nothing, I fear, that would interest you!"

CHAPTER IX

The news of the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. Saltonstall
was followed by the still more astonishing discovery that the Doctor's
will further bequeathed to her his entire property, after payment of
his debts and liabilities. It was given in recognition of her talents
and business integrity during their late association, and as an
evidence of the confidence and "undying affection" of the testator.
Nevertheless, after the first surprise, the fact was accepted by the
community as both natural and proper under that singular instinct of
humanity which acquiesces without scruple in the union of two large
fortunes, but sharply questions the conjunction of poverty and
affluence, and looks only for interested motives where there is
disparity of wealth. Had Mrs. Saltonstall been a poor widow instead of
a rich one; had she been the Doctor's housekeeper instead of his
business friend, the bequest would have been strongly criticised--if
not legally tested. But this combination, which placed the entire
valley of San Antonio in the control of a single individual, appeared
to be perfectly legitimate. More than that, some vague rumor of the
Doctor's past and his early entanglements only seemed to make this
eminently practical disposition of his property the more respectable,
and condoned for any moral irregularities of his youth.

The effect upon the collateral branches of the Guitierrez family and
the servan