n had suggested to him that it was his mother,
and not he, who had decided that the sheep-shearing would be better
deferred until the arrival of Father Salvierderra from Santa Barbara,
and that nothing should be said on the ranch about this being the real
reason of the postponing, Felipe would have stared in astonishment, and
have thought that person either crazy or a fool.

To attain one's ends in this way is the consummate triumph of art. Never
to appear as a factor in the situation; to be able to wield other men,
as instruments, with the same direct and implicit response to will that
one gets from a hand or a foot,--this is to triumph, indeed: to be as
nearly controller and conqueror of Fates as fate permits. There have
been men prominent in the world's affairs at one time and another, who
have sought and studied such a power and have acquired it to a
great degree. By it they have manipulated legislators, ambassadors,
sovereigns; and have grasped, held, and played with the destinies
of empires. But it is to be questioned whether even in these notable
instances there has ever been such marvellous completeness of success
as is sometimes seen in the case of a woman in whom the power is an
instinct and not an attainment; a passion rather than a purpose.
Between the two results, between the two processes, there is just that
difference which is always to be seen between the stroke of talent and
the stroke of genius.

Senora Moreno's was the stroke of genius.

II

THE Senora Moreno's house was one of the best specimens to be found
in California of the representative house of the half barbaric, half
elegant, wholly generous and free-handed life led there by Mexican men
and women of degree in the early part of this century, under the rule of
the Spanish and Mexican viceroys, when the laws of the Indies were still
the law of the land, and its old name, "New Spain," was an ever-present
link and stimulus to the warmest memories and deepest patriotisms of its
people.

It was a picturesque life, with more of sentiment and gayety in it, more
also that was truly dramatic, more romance, than will ever be seen
again on those sunny shores. The aroma of it all lingers there still;
industries and inventions have not yet slain it; it will last out its
century,--in fact, it can never be quite lost, so long as there is left
standing one such house as the Senora Moreno's.

When the house was built, General Moreno owned all the l