e time they returned to the hacienda they had regained
something of their former intimacy. The dry, incisive breath of the
plains swept away the last lingering remnants of yesterday's illusions.
Under this frankly open sky, in this clear perspective of the remote
Sierras, which admitted no fanciful deception of form or distance--there
remained nothing but a strange incident--to be later explained or
forgotten. Only he could not bring himself to talk to HER about it.

After dinner, and a decent lingering for coffee on the veranda, Dick
rose, and leaning half caressingly, half mischievously, over his aunt's
rocking-chair, but with his eyes on Cecily, said:--

"I've been deeply considering, dear Aunty, what you said last evening
of the necessity of our offering a good example to our neighbors. Now,
although Cecily and I are cousins, yet, as I am HEAD of the house,
lord of the manor, and padron, according to the Spanish ideas I am her
recognised guardian and protector, and it seems to me it is my positive
DUTY to accompany her if she wishes to walk out this evening."

A momentary embarrassment--which, however, changed quickly into an
answering smile to her cousin--came over Cecily's face. She turned to
her aunt.

"Well, don't go too far," said that lady quietly.

When they closed the grille behind them and stepped into the lane,
Cecily shot a quick glance at her cousin.

"Perhaps you'd rather walk in the garden?"

"I? Oh, no," he answered honestly. "But"--he hesitated--"would you?"

"Yes," she said faintly.

He impulsively offered his arm; her slim hand slipped lightly through
it and rested on his sleeve. They crossed the lane together, and entered
the garden. A load appeared to be lifted from his heart; the moment
seemed propitious,--here was a chance to recover his lost ground, to
regain his self-respect and perhaps his cousin's affection. By a common
instinct, however, they turned to the right, and AWAY from the stone
bench, and walked slowly down the broad allee.

They talked naturally and confidingly of the days when they had met
before, of old friends they had known and changes that had crept into
their young lives; they spoke affectionately of the grim, lonely, but
self-contained old woman they had just left, who had brought them thus
again together. Cecily talked of Dick's studies, of the scientific work
on which he was engaged, that was to bring him, she was sure, fame and
fortune! They talked of the tho