ng gaze so difficult to sustain. None
knew better than Victoria the value and rarity of a free and courageous
soul. Such a woman must, when more fully developed, throw the whole
weight of her character into the scales balancing for the few whom she
recognized as equals and accepted as friends. If she had had "some
smashing love affair," as the more romantic Flora suggested, so much
the better.

She said, with a perfectly simulated impulsiveness:

"Of course you understand that I meant what I said last evening. And not
merely a week; you must pay us a long visit, if it won't bore you. But
the house will rarely be empty now that the shooting has begun, and
there is always something going on in the neighborhood. Later comes the
hunting, and I am sure you ride."

"Oh yes, I ride! I have spent about half my life on a horse. I want to
stay more than I can tell you, but before long I must go home. The same
safe old bank that has charge of your ranches looks after my small
affairs, and I have a man on the farm that has been in the family for
forty years; otherwise I should never have dared to leave my precious
chickens; but Mr. Colton writes me that Mac is failing, and before the
rainy season commences I must look into things myself."

"Chickens?" said Lady Victoria, much amused. "Do you raise chickens?"

"Rather; and not in the back yard, neither. I have about a thousand of
the most beautiful snow-white Leghorns with blood-red combs you ever
saw; and I have incubators, runs, colony-houses, and all the rest of it.
They are raised on the strictest scientific principles and yield me the
greater part of my income. That is the reason I feel obliged to
return--if Mac is no longer able--or willing--to get up at night. One
must not neglect the chicks--the little ones. I doubt if real babies are
more trouble. I don't mind telling you that I have resolved to make a
fortune out of chickens, if only that I may be able to live as I should
in San Francisco. But I must go back and do the greater part of the work
myself."

"Make a fortune--out of chickens! How odd that sounds! Not in the least
romantic, but rather the more interesting for that. But why don't you
let your ranch for dairy and grazing purposes, as we do? They bring us
in a very good income--have done, so far."

"There are about nineteen thousand acres in Lumalitas, and some forty
thousand in the southern ranch. I possess exactly three hundred and
thirty-two, forty-five o