e, but I can come up soon if you think it will be all
right."

The old man smiled in his most saturnine fashion and sighed dismally. "I
will make a special offering to the church if you come often," he said.
"I can see black days ahead of us. She does not like the mountains."

"Oh, she'll not stay long," Flick consoled him. "The summer, perhaps;
but she will be ready to sign up with Sweeney before fall. She can't
stay off the stage longer than that. You'll see."

Gallito sighed again and pessimistically shook his head. He was far
from anxious to assume the responsibility of restoring his daughter's
spirits, and had hoped that Flick would relieve him of that duty, but,
since that was not to be, he accepted the situation with what philosophy
and fortitude he could muster and hurried the feminine preparations for
departure so successfully that he and Pearl actually got away on the
afternoon train.

This fact was communicated to Hanson by Jimmy early that evening. Hanson
had returned to the San Gorgonio before noon and had remained in his
room until nightfall. As the day wore on and he recovered in some
measure his self-control, he began to view the situation in a different
light from that in which it had first appeared to him, although, in
strict adherence to fact, he could not be said to have viewed it in any
light at all in that first hour or two. It was all dense darkness to
him, a black despair not unmingled with anger and a sense of injury. But
as he sat alone in his room with its windows looking out over the
desert, his naturally confident and optimistic spirit gradually asserted
itself. Again and again, and each time more positively, he assured
himself that all was not lost yet by any means. He had been unfortunate
enough, yes, and fool enough, to make a bad break; a break that he, with
all of his experience, should have known better than to make to any
woman. Yet he felt that, even admitting that, he could not justly blame
himself. The Pearl had not only surprised but frightened him by the way
she had taken a fact which he thought she fully understood--that
marriage was out of the question for him. He was so crazy about her
that he had lost his head, that was the long and short of the matter,
and had made a fool of himself and hash of the situation; but
temporarily, only temporarily. For, and to this belief he clung more and
more hopefully, the Pearl was too deeply in love with him definitely to
close the affai