carcely be told from the flesh that it
clasped. Paul did not know that it was the gift of the mother to the
child that she had forsworn only a few weeks before she parted from her
forever; but he had a vague feeling that, in that sable dress that
seemed like mourning, she walked at the funeral of her mother's past.
A few white flowers in her corsage, the companions of the solitary one
in his button-hole, were the only relief.

Their eyes met for a single moment, the look of admiration in Paul's
being answered by the naive consciousness in Yerba's of a woman looking
her best; but the next moment she appeared preoccupied with the others,
and the eager advances of Don Caesar.

"Your brother seems to admire Miss Yerba," said Paul.

"Ah, ye--es," returned Dona Anna. "And you?"

"Oh!" said Paul, gayly, "I? I am her guardian--with me it is simple
egotism, you know."

"Ah!" returned the arch Dona Anna, "you are then already SO certain of
her? Good! I shall warn him."

A precaution that did seem necessary; as later, when Paul, at a signal
from his hostess, offered his arm to Yerba, the young Spaniard regarded
him with a look of startled curiosity.

"I thank you for selecting me to wear your colors," said Paul with a
glance at the flowers in her corsage, as they sat at table, "and I
think I deserve them, since, but for you, I should have been on my way
to San Francisco at this moment. Shall I have an opportunity of
talking to you a few minutes later in the evening?" he added, in a
lower tone.

"Why not now?" returned Yerba, mischievously. "We are set here
expressly for that purpose."

"Surely not to talk of our own business--I should say, of our FAMILY
affairs," said Paul, looking at her with equal playfulness; "though I
believe your friend Don Caesar, opposite, would be more pleased if he
were sure that was all we did."

"And you think his sister would share in that pleasure?" retorted
Yerba. "I warn you, Mr. Hathaway, that you have been quite justifying
the Reverend Mother's doubts about your venerable pretensions.
Everybody is staring at you now."

Paul looked up mechanically. It was true. Whether from some occult
sympathy, from a human tendency to admire obvious fitness and symmetry,
or the innocent love with which the world regards innocent lovers, they
were all observing Yerba and himself with undisguised attention. A
good talker, he quickly led the conversation to other topics. It was
then that h