cation of Garcia for the
grant. The indorsement of Micheltorena was unquestionably genuine. BUT
THE APPLICATION WAS MADE FOR ROYAL THATCHER. And his own signature was
imitated to the life.

"I had but one letter of yours wiz your name," said Carmen
apologetically; "and it was the best poor me could do."

"Why, you blessed little goose and angel," said Thatcher, with the bold,
mixed metaphor of amatory genius, "don't you see--"

"Ah, you don't like it,--it is not good?"

"My darling!"

"Hoosh! There is also an 'old cat' up stairs. And now I have here a
character. WILL you sit down? Is it of a necessity that up and down you
should walk and awaken the whole house? There!"--she had given him a
vicious dab with her fan as he passed. He sat down.

"And you have not seen me nor written to me for a year?"

"Carmen!"

"Sit down, you bold, bad boy. Don't you see it is of business that you
and I talk down here; and it is of business that ozzer people up stairs
are thinking. Eh?"

"D--n business! See here, Carmen, my darling, tell me"--I regret to say
he had by this time got hold of the back of Carmen's chair--"tell me, my
own little girl,--about--about that Senator. You remember what you said
to him?"

"Oh, the old man? Oh, THAT was business. And you say of business,
'd--n.'"

"Carmen!"

"Don Royal!"

*****

Although Miss Carmen had recourse to her fan frequently during this
interview, the air must have been chilly, for a moment later, on his way
down stairs, poor Harlowe, a sufferer from bronchitis, was attacked with
a violent fit of coughing, which troubled him all the way down.

"Well," he said, as he entered the room, "I see you have found Mr.
Thatcher, and shown those papers. I trust you have, for you've certainly
had time enough. I am sent by mother to dismiss you all to bed."

Carmen still in the arm chair, covered with her mantilla, did not speak.

"I suppose you are by this time lawyer enough to know," continued
Harlowe, "that Miss De Haro's papers, though ingenious, are not legally
available, unless--"

"I chose to make her a witness. Harlowe! you're a good fellow! I don't
mind saying to you that these are papers I prefer that my WIFE should
not use. We'll leave it for the present--Unfinished Business."

They did. But one evening our hero brought Mrs. Royal Thatcher a paper
containing a touching and beautiful tribute to the dead Senator.

"There, Carmen, love, read that. Don't you feel a litt