The Avalanche

ossible information, he finally had recourse to the manager of the hotel, D.V. Bimmer. They were a Madame and Mademoiselle Delano from Rouen, and had been at the hot

hey are ladies and one letter would have done the bus

nth, did condescend to tell me that she had admired California very much when she was here before, and intended to travel all over the state. Perhaps I met her in that far off long ago, for I was managing a hotel in San Francisco about that time, and her face haunts me somehow-although when features get all swallowed up by fat like that you can't locate them. The girl, too, reminds me of some one, but of course she was in arms when she left and as I ain't much on cathedrals I never went to Rouen.

he rights of her radiant youth if her mother had not taken the precaution to bring letters. France was full of Californians. Many lived there. Surely she must have met some one she could have made use of. It was tragic to watch a

ening, ask her to regard him as her host. But Madame Delano had a frozen eye, and no doubt orthod

mpelled to follow or go into retirement. She was always leaving abruptly for Europe, and every once in a while she did something quite uncanonical; enjoying wickedly the consternation she caused among the serenely regulated, and betraying to the keen eyes of the New Yorker an ironic appreciation of the immense wealth which enabled her to

times when she was impeccably groomed, others when she looked as if an infuriated maid had left her helpless. She was, as Ruyler well knew, a kind and generous woman (in certain of her moods), with

, were whispering resentfully. Price Ruyler stood in no awe of her. He could match her arrogance, and he lik

to expect. "Good evening, oh, Queen of the Pacific," he said lightly. "You are looking quite wonder

cool penetration. "I may not massage or have my old cuticle ripped off. If I cho

ust how original you are, instead of settling do

and flashed as they must have done in their unchastene

I am about to ask you to forget that I am a bungling diplomat and do

t in for charities. I a

in charities i

the point. Wh

itting beside that beautiful girl, and introduce yourself and th

. "The girl is all right, but I don't like the mother. She is w

e dado of amiable overfed ladies who

. Of course it is stupid of them to get fat. Naturally it makes them look bourgeoise. But this is a lazy climate. As to that woman: there is something about her I do

will be easy enough to drop her if she doesn't go down. You can

is what she was brought here for-we shall not be able

. How different she looked! She radiated a subtle promise of perfect companionship. Price Ruyler did what all m

for a moment. She had played with the fancy, before anger banished it, that if she had been twenty years younger.... Men had fallen madly in love with her in her own

have read h

ttle, "that girl reminds me so much of you that I have made up my mind to marry her. I don't care who she is. If you don't help me t

the wall by that narrow concentrated gaze. Then Mrs

r fiendish temper all evening," saw her talking with spontaneous graciousness to both the strangers. Madame Delano was at first more distant and reserved than Mrs. Thornton had ever

tes she beckoned to him imperiously. A moment later he was whi