ty by selling it to his neighbors, intending
to build a better house on its site after his return. Having comforted
Phoebe, and impulsively conceived further plans for restoring Jim to
her,--happily without any recurrence of his previous doubts as to his
own efficacy as a special Providence,--he returned to the rancho. If he
thought again of Jim's defection and Gilroy's warning, it was only to
strengthen himself to a clearer perception of his unselfish duty and
singleness of purpose. He would give up brooding, apply himself more
practically to the management of the property, carry out his plans
for the foundation of a Landlords' Protective League for the southern
counties, become a candidate for the Legislature, and, in brief, try
to fill Peyton's place in the county as he had at the rancho. He would
endeavor to become better acquainted with the half-breed laborers on
the estate and avoid the friction between them and the Americans; he was
conscious that he had not made that use of his early familiarity with
their ways and language which he might have done. If, occasionally, the
figure of the young Spaniard whom he had met on the lonely road obtruded
itself on him, it was always with the instinctive premonition that he
would meet him again, and the mystery of the sudden repulsion be in some
way explained. Thus Clarence! But the momentary impulse that had driven
him to Fair Plains, the eagerness to set his mind at rest regarding Susy
and her relatives, he had utterly forgotten.

Howbeit some of the energy and enthusiasm that he breathed into these
various essays made their impression. He succeeded in forming the
Landlords' League; under a commission suggested by him the straggling
boundaries of Robles and the adjacent claims were resurveyed, defined,
and mutually protected; even the lawless Gilroy, from extending an
amused toleration to the young administrator, grew to recognize and
accept him; the peons and vacqueros began to have faith in a man who
acknowledged them sufficiently to rebuild the ruined Mission Chapel on
the estate, and save them the long pilgrimage to Santa Inez on Sundays
and saints' days; the San Francisco priest imported from Clarence's
old college at San Jose, and an habitual guest at Clarence's hospitable
board, was grateful enough to fill his flock with loyalty to the young
padron.

He had returned from a long drive one afternoon, and had just thrown
himself into an easy-chair with the comfortable