remarkable thing was there was
no smell, like there would have been in any other country where workmen
in their ordinary clothes were grouped together;--only tobacco smoke.

They were some of them playing very high, and it looked so quaint to see
a rough miner putting $500 on a single throw. We had a sheriff among
our party. There was to have been a raid of the state police on this
particular saloon, for some new rule which had been made, but the
sheriff quietly said the law might wait a night; as they were showing
round some English ladies! Now, don't you call that exquisite courtesy,
Mamma? And what a sensible sort of administration of law, knowing its
suitable time like that, the essence of tact and good taste, I call it;
but I can't say in every way what darlings all these Westerners are. Our
escort presented numbers of them to us, and without exception they had
beautiful manners, the quiet ease of perfect breeding. It is
upsetting all Octavia's theories, and she is coming round to Mrs. Van
Brounker-Courtfield's view that it is the life a man leads more than
blood even, which tells; and there they are fighting the earth for the
ore with great courage and endurance and hard manual labour, and so it
produces finer expressions of faces, and lither forms than using your
brains to be sharper in business than your neighbour.

All the time Nelson and the man with the roguish eye stood on either
side of me, and the Senator moved from Octavia backwards and forwards,
and when we got outside they both held my arms, not with the least
familiarity, but the gentle protective respect they might have to
an aged queen, or you, Mamma; and it was just as well, because the
sidewalks were up on sort of sleepers, and were all uneven, and in some
places a board worn through, so one could have a bad fall by oneself.
And it was very agreeable, but I noticed that Nelson held mine rather
tight, and that his arm trembled. I suppose he was still feeling the
vibration of the train. I hope you picture it all--us walking through
these quaint streets, surrounded by a crowd of great big men. And
neither Octavia nor I have ever walked in a street before at night, so
it did seem fun.

After this we went to the large dance hall. It was too interesting, and
I simply longed to dance. I must describe it to you, Mamma, because of
course you have never heard of anything of this sort before. It was a
very large board room, like a barn with a rail across t