m to have
kept his gravity and his respect for his companion under this egregious
illusion. But he kept both. For a sudden conviction that she
suspected the truth, and had taken this audacious and original plan of
crushing it, overpowered all other sense. The Arguellos, it flashed
upon him, were an old Spanish family, former owners of Yerba Buena
Island, who had in the last years become extinct. There had been a
story that one of them had eloped with an American ship captain's wife
at Monterey. The legendary history of early Spanish California was
filled with more remarkable incidents, corroborated with little
difficulty from Spanish authorities, who, it was alleged, lent
themselves readily to any fabrication or forgery. There was no racial
pride: on the contrary, they had shown an eager alacrity to ally
themselves with their conquerors. The friends of the Arguellos would
be proud to recognize and remember in the American heiress the
descendant of their countrymen. All this passed rapidly through his
mind after the first moment of surprise; all this must have been the
deliberate reasoning of this girl of seventeen, whose dark eyes were
bent upon him. Whether she was seeking corroboration or complicity he
could not tell.

"Have you found this out yourself?" he asked, after a pause.

"Yes. One of my friends at the convent was Josita Castro; she knew all
the history of the Arguellos. She is perfectly satisfied."

For an instant Paul wondered if it was a joint conception of the two
schoolgirls. But, on reflection, he was persuaded that Yerba would
commit herself to no accomplice--of her own sex. She might have
dominated the girl, and would make her a firm partisan, while the girl
would be convinced of it herself, and believe herself a free agent. He
had had such experience with men himself.

"But why have you not spoken of it before--and to Colonel Pendleton?"

"He did not choose to tell ME," said Yerba, with feminine dexterity.
"I have preferred to keep it myself a secret till I am of age."

"When Colonel Pendleton and some of the other trustees have no right to
say anything," thought Paul quickly. She had evidently trusted him.
Yet, fascinated as he had been by her audacity, he did not know whether
to be pleased, or the reverse. He would have preferred to be placed on
an equal footing with Josita Castro. She anticipated his thoughts by
saying, with half-raised eyelids:--

"What do YOU think of it?