steady,
which is more than most masons."

"He's impudent," Adelle asserted with an air of finality.

"Very well, ma'am," the contractor said reluctantly. "I'll fire him
to-night."

And Adelle thereupon went back to the house, gratified that she had
enforced discipline, not hearing the contractor's profanity about
meddlesome women. Later on the same day after the workmen had
left,--they knocked off from their eight hours while the sun was still
high in the heavens,--Adelle was wandering over the place, idly looking
for a suitable location for a tennis-court. The doctor had told her to
take some active exercise like tennis to prevent becoming unduly stout.
And Archie had picked out a site below the new house on fairly level
ground, but Adelle wanted to have the court cut out of the steep
hillside above the pool. Having found what she considered to be the
right spot, which would necessitate much expensive excavation and
building of retaining walls, she followed a little worn path through the
eucalyptus grove over the brow of the hill, curious to discover where it
led. After a time she emerged on the other side of the hill, and getting
through the barbed wire fence that marked the boundary of her own
estate, she followed the path along the farther side of the slope
through a clearing in the woods to an open field. From this side there
was a wild prospect westwards to the low haze which she knew indicated
the presence of the Pacific. The country on this slope of the hills
seemed wild and uninhabited. Adelle did not remember ever to have been
in the place and wondered if it was accessible by motor. At the farther
end of the field there was one of the tar-paper shacks that the workmen
put up for themselves, and the path evidently led to this hut. Usually
these shacks were huddled together in bunches nearer the town, within
easy reach of shop and saloon, but this one stood all alone on the edge
of the clearing. A man was bending over a tin basin before the door,
apparently washing out some clothes. As Adelle approached, he looked up
from his washing and Adelle recognized the impertinent stone mason. He
looked at her coolly, as if this time she were trespassing on his
domain, and as she came leisurely down the path, trying to ignore his
presence, he calmly threw out the dirty water from his pan on the path
and went into his shack, pulling the door to after him with a bang.
Adelle suspected the smile of contempt upon his face