chose. In this respect she was nearer
the primitive than Archie, who often reminded her of the fact somewhat
cruelly. Yet, as we shall see, when the time came she awoke to the full
realization of the situation, which Archie never understood at all.

Art having finally been thrown out of the window by both, it remained to
determine how best they could dispose of themselves and their riches so
as to "get the most out of life." The first of the game substitutes for
real living happened to be a "ranch." The suggestion came from Irene's
husband, who had been attracted to California by this lure of
"ranching."

"Why don't you go in for a big ranch?" he said to Archie one evening,
when the four were yawning sleepily over the fire after a day spent
motoring in the wind. "There's the Arivista property in Sonoma County. I
hear they want to sell--ten thousand acres."

The idea of becoming a large landowner appealed to the Californian in
Archie. They talked the matter over, and it resulted in their all
motoring down the State to the Arivista property. In the end they bought
at considerable expense this ten-thousand-acre tract of mountain,
valley, and plain, and began elaborate improvements. It had been once a
"cattle proposition," but Archie's idea was to turn it into fruit and
nuts, as well as a gentleman's estate of a princely sort, with a large
"mission style" cement mansion. He engaged an architect and a
superintendent, and began building and planting on an elaborate scale.

Adelle was glad to see her Archie really interested in something and
encouraged him in all his ambitious plans. They motored frequently to
the ranch to inspect operations. It took them two days to go and return,
and there were only rough accommodations at the ranch. But she liked it.
The great untamed spaces of hill and plain, with the broad horizon of
blue mountains, appealed to her. She was less interested in the big
house, the barns, outbuildings, orchards,--all the paraphernalia that
goes with an "estate," which Archie wished impatiently to have created
at once. It took, naturally, a great deal of money. Before the work at
Arivista was finally stopped, it was estimated that close to half a
million dollars of Clark's Field had been poured into this California
"ranch," from which, of course, less than a quarter was ever recovered,
no other rich man being found with similar conceptions of what a "ranch"
should be. All told, the Davises lived upon their