has left so little to
do that you can be spared, without embarrassment, until the rains begin.
I am going to have a grand festival at Christmas, and I would like you
to be home before that time. I will explain further when you have got
John's consent to your absence. Come to the house after, and ask if I
have any commission for you."

When Miss Edwards cantered off, leaving him alone in the road, Jim was
in a state of pleased bewilderment, not unmixed with an instinctive
jealousy.

"I do wonder, neow, what she wants with Charlie Erskine. He was a
powerful nice feller, and smart as lightnin'; but, somehow, he an'
Edwards never could hitch hosses. Erskine allus went too fast for steady
John, an' I doubt ef he didn't git him into some money troubles. I'd
like to know, though, what that girl's got to do about it. Wonder ef she
knowed him back in the States. Wimmen is cur'us, sure enough."

Jim's suggestion was the true one. Miss Edwards had known Charles
Erskine "back in the States," and when they parted last, it had been as
engaged lovers. When she left her home in the East to join her brother,
a speedy marriage with him had been in contemplation. But how often did
it happen, in old "steamer times," that wives left New York to join
husbands in San Francisco, only to find, on arrival at the end of a long
voyage, the dear ones hidden from sight in the grave, or the false ones
gone astray! And so it happened to Mary Edwards, that, when she set foot
on California soil, no lover appeared to welcome her, and her trembling
and blushing were turned to painful suspense and secret bitter tears.

Her brother had vouchsafed very little explanation; only declaring
Charles Erskine a scoundrel, who had nearly ruined him, and swearing he
should never set foot on Tesoro Rancho until every dollar of
indebtedness was paid. Poor Mary found it hard settling into a place so
new, and duties so unaccustomed; but her good sense and good spirits
conquered difficulties as they arose, until now she was quite inclined
to like the new life for its own sake. Her brother was kind, and
gathered about her every comfort and many luxuries; though, owing to
embarrassments into which Erskine had drawn him, and to the losses of a
year of drought, his purse was not overflowing. Such was the situation
of affairs on the December morning when our story opens.

Miss Edwards mentioned to her brother, during the day, that James Harris
had spoken of going to the c