Maruja

of wheat and oats were stretching out and broadening to the sky. In the east and south the stars were receding before the coming day; in the west a few still glimmered, caught among the bosky h

he dust of the highway still unslaked by the dewless nigh

age and semi-lawlessness; the coyote's slouching amble and uneasy stealthiness being repeated in the tramp's shuffling step and sidelong glances. Both were young, and physically vigorous, but both displayed the same vacillating and awkward disinclination to direct effort. They continued thus half a mile apart uncon

n a dull mechanical fashion, as if rather to prolong his useless hours, than from any curious instinct, and to occasionally dip in the unfrequent pools of water the few crusts of bread he had taken from his pocket. Even this appeared to be suggested more by coincidence of material in the bread and water, than from the promptings of hunger. At last he reached a cup

deprive it of the imperious dignity of size and space. Much of this was due to the fact that the original casa-an adobe house of no mean pretensions, dating back to the early Spanish occupation-had been kept intact, sheathed in a shell of dark-red wood, and still retaining its patio; or inner court-yard, surrounded by low galleries, while additions, greater in extent than the main building, had been erected-not as wings and projections, but massed upon it on either side, changing its rigid square outlines to a vague parallelogram. While the patio retained the Spanish conception of al fresco seclusion, a vast colonnade of veranda on the southern side was a concession to American taste, and its breadth gave th

s. But the south facade of the building had not apparently gone to bed at all: lights were still burning dimly in the large ball-room; a tray with glasses stood upon the veranda near one of the open French windows, and further on, a half-shut yell

Britain usually offers as a gentle concession to inferior yet more florid civilization. Nevertheless, he beamed back heartily on the sun, and remarked, in a pleasant Scotch accent, that: Did they know it was very extraordinary how clear the morning was, so free from clouds and mist and fog? The young man in evening dress fluently agreed to th

foreign young gentleman received this statement with pain and astonishment as to the fact, with passionate remorse as to his own ignorance. But still, as it was a cha

wayfarers as to the locality of the circus he would be pleasantly supposed to represent, even if he escaped being shot as a rare Califor

t he, too, would retire for the present to change his garments, and glided back through the window at the

or the last hour. I wonder what's u

first sentence of natural conversation that the Scotchman

and Garnier are each particularly anxious to know w

eparate, then?"

oking through his window now at Ca

y. "Is it a quarrel? Nothing serious, I hope. No rev

fight. I see you don't understand. You're a stranger; I'm an old habitue of the house-let me explain. Both

Scotchman; "and I understood from one of the young ladies that the Captain had

uldn't prevent Maruja

ymond? Certainly a more quiet, modest

tzes with you, and let you do the t

ed, but he recovered himself with a good-humored la

l swear that she never said two words to him the whole time she sat next to him at dinner. But she looked at him as if she had. Why, man, woman, and child all give her credit for any grace that pl

d; I'm not prepared to say that she's not," returned

can produce the effect of the prettiest girl here, and without chal

Raymond. As an habitue of

hed the young man, with unaffected fra

ere not a ma

it was beca

n looked at

eiress. I am a

ow, I thought that

d the old patio, is Spanish. The Dona's family, the Estudillos and Guitierrez, always looked down upon this alliance with the Yankee captain, though it brought improvement to the land, and increased its value forty-fold, and since his death ever opposed any further foreign intervention. Not that that would weigh much with Maruja if she took a fancy to any one; Spanis

ill make a pretty penny on

nough of the old Spanish jealousy in the blood to make ev

lse could this attractive young fellow, educated abroad and a rising man in his profession, have f

untrymen, why does our hostess expose her daughters to their fascinating influence?" said th

duenna still survives in the family-the more awful because invisible. It's a mysterious fact that as soon

That Indian-looking

knows what he says. If the victim appeals to the mistress, she is indisposed; you know she

ow

ng his young affections to

he Captain has had this confidenti

ll be necessary," sa

f the mysterious espionage you have discovered. No! De'il take it! but there's that Frenchman po

d, in a changed vo

some particular flower, that both men felt an uneasy consciousness. But she betrayed no indication of their presence by look or gesture. So abso

ity of womanly outline. The full oval of her face, the straight line of her back, a slight boyishness in the contour of her hips, th

ye no be ashamed o' yerself for putting the tricks of a Circe on sic a honest gentle bairn? Why, man, you'll be seein' the sign of a limb of Satan in a bit thing with the mother's milk not yet out of her! She a flirt, speerin' at men,

eebly, "and I'll tell you how o

g more than their own beauty. With a deep brunette setting even to the darkened cornea, the pupils were blue as the sky above them. But they

g. Her straight, curveless mouth became suddenly charming with the parting of her lips over her white teeth, and left the impress o

id the Scotchman, seizing Raymond's arm

if she hasn't given him her flowers to carry to

his arm in the young man's and dragging him from the veranda