t pocket; but he had gone only
a few steps when he stopped, glanced keenly over the house and lawn,
turned his back, and taking the sheet from his pocket, he smoothed it
out, folded it carefully, and put it in an inside pocket. Then he joined
the party.

At once they set out to examine the available locations that yet
remained in Lilac Valley. Nature provided them a wonderful day of snappy
sunshine and heady sea air. Spring favored them with lilac walls at
their bluest, broken here and there with the rose-misted white mahogany.
The violet nightshade was beginning to add deeper color to the hills
in the sunniest wild spots. The panicles of mahonia bloom were showing
their gold color. Wild flowers were lifting leaves of feather and lace
everywhere, and most agreeable on the cool morning air was a faint
breath of California sage. Up one side of the valley, weaving in and
out, up and down, over the foothills they worked their way. They stopped
for dinner at one of the beautiful big hotels, practically filled with
Eastern tourists. Eileen never had known a prouder moment than when she
took her place at the head of the table and presided over the dinner
which was served to three most attractive specimens of physical manhood,
each of whom was unusually well endowed with brain, all flattering her
with the most devoted attention. This triumph she achieved in a dining
room seating hundreds of people, its mirror-lined walls reflecting
her exquisite image from many angles, to the click of silver, and
the running accompaniment of many voices. What she had expected to
accomplish in her own dining room had come to her before a large
audience, in which, she had no doubt, there were many envious women.
Eileen rayed loveliness like a Mariposa lily, and purred in utter
contentment like a deftly stroked kitten.

When they parted in the evening Peter Morrison had memoranda of three
locations that he wished to consider. That he might not seem to be
unduly influenced or to be giving the remainder of Los Angeles County
its just due, he proposed to motor around for a week before reaching
an ultimate decision, but in his heart he already had decided that
somewhere near Los Angeles he would build his home, and as yet he had
seen nothing nearly so attractive as Lilac Valley.

CHAPTER VII. Trying Yucca

On her way to school that morning Linda stopped at the post office
and pasted the required amount of stamps upon the package that she was