from Mamie.

"I'm speaking," said Mrs. Mulrady, emphatically.

The murmuring ceased. Mrs. Mulrady returned to her husband. The
interruption seemed to have taken off the keen edge of his enjoyment.
He at once abdicated his momentary elevation as a discoverer, and
waited for her to speak.

"Ye haven't told any one yet?" she asked.

"No. I was alone, down in the shaft. Ye see, Malviny, I wasn't
expectin' of anything." He began, with an attempt at fresh enjoyment,
"I was just clearin' out, and hadn't reckoned on anythin'."

"You see, I was right when I advised you taking the land," she said,
without heeding him.

Mulrady's face fell. "I hope Don Caesar won't think"--he began,
hesitatingly. "I reckon, perhaps, I oughter make some sorter
compensation--you know."

"Stuff!" said Mrs. Mulrady, decidedly. "Don't be a fool. Any gold
discovery, anyhow, would have been yours--that's the law. And you
bought the land without any restrictions. Besides, you never had any
idea of this!"--she stopped, and looked him suddenly in the face--"had
you?"

Mulrady opened his honest, pale-gray eyes widely.

"Why, Malviny! You know I hadn't. I could swear!"

"Don't swear, and don't let on to anybody but what you DID know it was
there. Now, Alvin Mulrady, listen to me." Her voice here took the
strident form of action. "Knock off work at the shaft, and send your
man away at once. Put on your things, catch the next stage to
Sacramento at four o'clock, and take Mamie with you."

"Mamie!" echoed Mulrady, feebly.

"You want to see Lawyer Cole and my brother Jim at once," she went on,
without heeding him, "and Mamie wants a change and some proper.
clothes. Leave the rest to me and Abner. I'll break it to Mamie, and
get her ready."

Mulrady passed his hands through his tangled hair, wet with
perspiration. He was proud of his wife's energy and action; he did not
dream of opposing her, but somehow he was disappointed. The charming
glamour and joy of his discovery had vanished before he could fairly
dazzle her with it; or, rather, she was not dazzled with it at all. It
had become like business, and the expression "breaking it" to Mamie
jarred upon him. He would have preferred to tell her himself; to watch
the color come into her delicate oval face, to have seen her soft eyes
light with an innocent joy he had not seen in his wife's; and he felt a
sinking conviction that his wife was the last one to awaken it.

"You ai