A Millionaire of Rough and Ready

re emptied upon the yellow hills surrounding Mulrady's, until their circling camp fires looked like a besieging army that had invested his peaceful pastoral home, preparatory to carrying it by ass

s Castilian principles was opposed by Don Caesar. "You needn't work them yourself, but sell out to them that will; it's the only way to keep the prospectors from taking it without paying for it at all," argued Mrs. Mulrady. Don Caesar finally

est in the mine. With an obstinacy, however, that amounted almost to a moral conviction, he refused to include the house and potato-patch in the property. When the company had yielded the point, he declined, with equal tenacity, to part wit

ild on it, and root up the gar

the beginning of my fortune, and it may be the end of it. Mebbee I'll be glad enough to h

band. "Lawyer Cole says most American names are corrupted, and how do you know that yours ain't?" Mulrady, who would not swear that his ancestors came from Ireland to the Carolinas in '98, was helpless to refute the assertion. But the terrible Nemesis of an un-Spanish, American provincial speech avenged the orthographical outrage at once. When Mrs. Mulrady began to be addressed orally, as well as by letter, as "Mrs. Mulraid," and when simple amatory effusions to her daughter rhymed with "lovely maid," she promptly refused the original vowel. But she fond

assented. The result was gratifying beyond her expectation. In that few weeks' sojourn at Sacramento, the young girl seemed to have adapted and assimilated herself to the latest modes of fashion with even more than the usual American girl's pliancy and taste. Equal to all emergencies of style and material, she seemed to supply, from some hitherto unknown quality she possessed, the grace and manner peculiar to each. Untrammeled by tradition, education, or precedent, she had the Western girl's confidence in all things being possible, which made them so often probable. Mr. Mulrady looked at his daughter with mingled sentiments of pride and

id not seem so to one pair of frank, humorous ones that glanced at her from time to time, as their owner, a young fellow of five-and-twenty, walked at her side. He was the new editor of the "Rough-and-Ready Record," and, having been her fellow-passenger from Sacramento, had already once or twice availed himself of her fathe

ef to me as an editor and a man. The pressure in the Poet's Corner of the 'Record' since it was mistakingly discovered that a person of your name might be induced to seek the 'glade' and 'shade' w

by one's own full name, isn't it?" said Mamie, wit

atal with a couplet as with a double-barreled gun, and scatters as terribly. Judge Butts and Dr. Wilson have both discerned the resemblance of your gifts to those of Venus, and their own to Apollo. But don't undervalue those tributes, Miss Mulrady," he added, more seriously

tter to do," said th

ed, mischievously; "it must be a palli

me here for?" sh

see

r leave Sacramento to come here? I should think

our father's example, and w

never do," she

ompliment, M

I think that you

y, the large boulder at the roadside. Mamie hesitated a moment, looked up and down the road, and then, with an already opulent indifference to the damaging of her spotless skirt, sat herself upon it,

oney here. You are leaving Rough-and-Ready because yo

ie, lazily, look

ther and tw

t, it flashed across her mind that, if they were like the man before her, they might

He is paralyzed, and out of his mind, Miss Mulrady. I came to California to seek him, as all news of him ceased thre

hat was when I we

prob

been very sh

wa

ink you'd fe

Miss Mulrady, how necessary to me is this good fortune that you don't think

and her parasol. "We mustn't st

hy

oach comes by at

assengers will obser

rse the

y, I implore

came into her cheek. For a moment she scarcely dared to lift her conscious eyes to his. W

ompanies. The 'Record' will double its circulation; poetry will drop out of its columns, advertising rush to fill its place, and I shall receive five dollars a week more salary, if not seven and a half. Never mind the consequences to yourself at such a moment. I assure you there

eous lawlessness seemed to accentuate and bring out the grave and decorous ease of his rider. Even in his burlesque preoccupation the editor of the "Record" did not withhold his admi

e to the other, as if to leave the privilege of an explanation with them. But Mamie was too wise, and her companion too indifferent, to offer one. A slight shade passed over Don Caesar's face. To complicate the situation at that moment, the expected stagecoach came rattling by. With quick feminine i

y oblivious of humor or cu

of the 'Record," sa

slinn. He was under the impression that it w

said Slinn. "I'm

e shot too?

an embarrassing third in this conversation, and possibly a burden to the young lady, he proceeded to take his leave of her. From a sudden feminine revulsion of sympathy, or from some unintelligible instinct of diplomacy

the young man, pressing her h

til he had disappeared be

family-this one-

"-not the first time nor the last time in her career. As there appeared no trace

go, and he has just found him-a helpless paralytic-in the Sacram

ent of each other always-these f

ous gravity-gentle and high-bred as it was, undoubtedly-was somewhat trying to her at times, and seemed e

and tied his horse to a tree with a str

ds your home. I can return alone for

den by the waxen-hued yerba buena, led from the highway, and finally lost itself in the undergrowth. It was a lovers' walk; they were lovers, evid

voiding any reference to our affection; treating it lightly, and even as to-day, I fancy, putting obstacles in the way of our meeting alone. She was disappointed at your return from Sacramento where, I have been told, she intended you to remain until you left the country; and since your return I have s

d, and blush

of late, and she may think-you know-that since-since there has been

t as she will. Saints forbid that an Alvarado should ever interfere. And what is it to us, my little one? En

ve been thrilled with delight at these words! Even now she was moved-conscious as she had become that the "state" of a bride of the Alvarados

d any minute investigation into its origin and real meaning. "Yes, dear; but we need not have a fuss made about it a

are goi

w," she answered, naively, "even if it were all settled.

ore his eyes, he said, "But you are charming now. You cannot be more so to me. If I am satisfied, l

much cleverer, and certainly more of a man of the world. When Slinn had treated her like a child, it was with the humorous tolerance of an admiring superior, and not

the proper thing. But never mind! Don't let us talk any more about it. Perhaps as it seem

on from Don Caesar's speech, or that she calculated its effect upon him; but it was part

you rich also; but you are a child in experience, and know not your own heart. With your beauty, your goodness, and your wealth, you will attract all to yo

ughingly admitted it. She HAD a brilliant future before her! Was she right in making it impossible by a rash and foolish tie? He himself had said she was inexperienced. She knew it; and yet, what was he doing now but taking advantage of that inexperience? If he really loved her, he would be willing to submi

he said, eagerly, passing

girls-I mean Americans-to tie yourself to the first one you have known. When I am gone you will go more into the world. There are Mr. Slinn's two sisters coming here-I shouldn't wonder if

he was perfectly frank and open; and it might not have been her last, but she h

ossible-that it is possibl

ee how we can communicate together, if anything should prevent our meeting. Remember, it was only by chance that you were able to see me now. If ma has believed that she ought to have been consulted, our

say," he pleaded. "Our

can w

er think of that?" he sa

house. You can leave a letter somewhere for me-say, somewhere about here. Stop!"

. A cavity, breast high, half filled with skeleton leaves and pine-nuts, showed t

ve-making in the old days, when she used to steal out of the cabbage rows in her brown linen apron and sun-bonnet to walk with him in the woods. He recalled the fact to her with the fatali

ed for me in that holland apron," she

passing his arm around her waist, and dra

ee herself. "There's not time. Write it, and put it in t

l," he whispered rea

g! I must go! Please! Ca

ithe movement of her wrist and shoulder, and the nex

ast a look at the decayed tree as if to fix it in his memory,

tree. It was a squirrel, who, having had serious and prior intentions of making use of the cavity they had discovered, had only withheld examination