suthin' else for her to do. Mebbee I may have my
secrets, too--eh?" he said, with dark significance, at the same time
administering a significant nudge to Lance, which kept up the young
man's exasperation. "No, she'll rest yer a bit just now. I'll set her to
watchin' suthin' else, like as not, when I want her." Flip fell into one
of her suggestive silences. Lance watched her earnestly, mollified by a
single furtive glance from her significant eyes; the rain dashed against
the windows, and occasionally spattered and hissed in the hearth of the
broad chimney, and Mr. David Fairley, somewhat assuaged by the
internal administration of whiskey, grew more loquacious. The genius of
incongruity and inconsistency which generally ruled his conduct came
out with freshened vigor under the gentle stimulation of spirit. "On an
evening like this," he began, comfortably settling himself on the floor
beside the chimney, "ye might rig yerself out in them new duds and fancy
fixin's that that Sacramento shrimp sent ye, and let your own flesh and
blood see ye. If that's too much to do for your old dad, ye might do it
to please that digger squaw as a Christian act." Whether in the hidden
depths of the old man's consciousness there was a feeling of paternal
vanity in showing this wretched aborigine the value and importance
of the treasure she was about to guard, I cannot say. Flip darted an
interrogatory look at Lance, who nodded a quiet assent, and she flew
into the inner room. She did not linger on the details of her toilet,
but reappeared almost the next moment in her new finery; buttoning the
neck of her gown as she entered the room, and chastely stopping at the
window to characteristically pull up her stocking. The peculiarity of
her situation increased her usual shyness; she played with the black and
gold beads of a handsome necklace,--Lance's last gift,--as the merest
child might; her unbuckled shoe gave the squaw a natural opportunity of
showing her admiration and devotion by insisting upon buckling it, and
gave Lance, under that disguise, an opportunity of covertly kissing
the little foot and ankle in the shadow of the chimney; an event which
provoked slight hysterical symptoms in Flip, and caused her to sit
suddenly down in spite of the remonstrances of her parent. "Ef you can't
quit gigglin' and squirmin' like an Injin baby yourself, ye'd better git
rid o' them duds," he ejaculated with peevish scorn.

Yet, under this perfunctory re