'clock in the morning Ramon was hard at work in the office of
James B. Green. He worked efficiently and with zest as he always did after
one of his trips to the mountains. He got out of these ventures into
another environment about what some men get out of sprees--a complete
change of the state of mind. Archulera and his daughter were now
completely forgotten, and all of his usual worries and plans were creeping
back into his consciousness.

But this day he had a feeling of pleasant anticipation. At first he could
not account for it. And then he remembered the girl--the one he had seen on
the train and had met again at the Montezuma ball. It seemed as though the
thought of her had been in the back of his mind all the time, and now
suddenly came forward, claiming all his attention, stirring him to a
quick, unwonted excitement. She had said he might come to see her. He was
to 'phone first. Maybe she would be alone.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}

In this latter hope he was disappointed. She gave him the appointment, and
she herself admitted him. He thought he had never seen such a dainty bit
of fragrant perfection, all in pink that matched the pink of her strange
little crinkled mouth.

"I'm awfully glad you came," she told him. (Her gladness was always
awful.) She led him into the sitting room and presented him to the tall
emaciated sick man and the large placid woman who had watched over her so
carefully on the train.

Gordon Roth greeted him with a cool and formal manner into which he
evidently tried to infuse something of cordiality, as though a desire to
be just and broad-minded struggled with prejudice. Mrs. Roth looked at him
with curiosity, and gave him a still more restrained greeting. The
conversation was a weak and painful affair, kept barely alive, now by one
and now by another. The atmosphere was heavy with disapproval. If their
greetings had left Ramon in any doubt as to the attitude of the girl's
family toward him, that doubt was removed by the fact that neither Mrs.
Roth nor her son showed any intention of leaving the room. This would have
been not unusual if he had called on a Mexican girl, especially if she
belonged to one of the more old-fashioned families; but he knew that
American girls are left alone with their suitors if the suitor is at all
welcome.

He knew a little about this family from hear-say. They came from one of
the larger factory towns in northern New York, and were supposed to be
moderately