WARD OF 
 
 THE/GOLD 
 
 ENN57VTE 
 
 4 -; ;;: T |^j j 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN 
 GATE 
 
 BY 
 
 BRET HARTE 
 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1891 
 
Copyright, 1890, 
 BY BRET IIARTE. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Prrsx, Cambridge, Mass., U, S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by U. 0. lloughtou & Company. 
 
95-5- 
 
 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN 
 GATE. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 IN San Francisco the " rainy season " had 
 been making itself a reality to the wonder 
 ing Eastern immigrant. There were short 
 days of drifting clouds and flying sunshine, 
 and long succeeding nights of incessant 
 downpour, when the rain rattled on the 
 thin shingles or drummed on the resounding 
 zinc of pioneer roofs. The shifting sand- 
 dunes on the outskirts were beaten motion 
 less and sodden by the onslaught of consec 
 utive storms ; the southeast trades brought 
 the saline breath of the outlying Pacific 
 even to the busy haunts of Commercial and 
 Kearney streets ; the low- lying Mission 
 road was a quagmire ; along the City Front, 
 despite of piles and pier and wharf, the 
 Pacific tides still asserted themselves in 
 mud and ooze as far as Sansome Street; 
 
2 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the wooden sidewalks of Clay and Montgom 
 ery streets were mere floating bridges or 
 buoyant pontoons superposed on elastic 
 bogs ; Battery Street was the Silurian beach 
 of that early period on which tin cans, 
 packing-boxes, freight, household furniture, 
 and even the runaway crews of. deserted 
 ships had been cast away. There were dan 
 gerous and unknown depths in Montgomery 
 Street and on the Plaza, and the wheels of 
 a passing carriage hopelessly mired had to 
 be lifted by the volunteer hands of a half 
 dozen high-booted wayfarers, whose wearers 
 were sufficiently content to believe that a 
 woman, a child, or an invalid was behind 
 its closed windows, without troubling them 
 selves or the occupant by looking through 
 the glass. 
 
 It was a carriage that, thus released, 
 eventually drew up before the superior pub 
 lic edifice known as the City Hall. From 
 it a woman, closely veiled, alighted, and 
 quickly entered the building. A few pass 
 ers-by turned to look at her, partly from 
 the rarity of the female figure at that pe 
 riod, and partly from the greater rarity of 
 its being well formed and even ladylike. 
 
 As she kept her way along the corridor 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 3 
 
 and ascended an iron staircase, she was 
 passed by others more preoccupied in busi 
 ness at the various public offices. One of 
 these visitors, however, stopped as if struck 
 by some fancied resemblance in her appear 
 ance, turned, and followed her. But when 
 she halted before a door marked " Mayor s 
 Office," he paused also, and, with a look of 
 half humorous bewilderment and a slight 
 glance around him as if seeking for some 
 one to whom to impart his arch fancy, he 
 turned away. The woman then entered a 
 large anteroom with a certain quick femi 
 nine gesture of relief, and, finding it empty 
 of other callers, summoned the porter, and 
 asked him some question in a voice so sup 
 pressed by the official severity of the apart 
 ment as to be hardly audible. The attend 
 ant replied by entering another room marked 
 " Mayor s Secretary," and reappeared with 
 a stripling of seventeen or eighteen, whose 
 singularly bright eyes were all that was 
 youthful in his composed features. After 
 a slight scrutiny of the woman half boy 
 ish, half official he desired her to be 
 seated, with a certain exaggerated gravity 
 as if he was over-acting a grown-up part, 
 and, taking a card from her, reentered his 
 
4 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 office. Here, however, he did not stand on 
 his head or call out a confederate youth 
 from a closet, as the woman might have ex 
 pected. To the left was a green baize door, 
 outlined with brass-studded rivets like a 
 cheerful coffin-lid, and bearing the mortuary 
 inscription, " Private." This he pushed 
 open, and entered the Mayor s private 
 office. 
 
 The municipal dignitary of San Francisco, 
 although an erect, soldier-like man of strong 
 middle age, was seated with his official chair 
 tilted back against the wall and kept in po 
 sition by his feet on the rungs of another, 
 which in turn acted as a support for a sec 
 ond man, who was seated a few feet from 
 him in an easy-chair. Both were lazily 
 smoking. 
 
 The Mayor took the card from his secre 
 tary, glanced at it, said "Hullo!" and 
 handed it to his companion, who read aloud 
 "Kate Howard," and gave a prolonged 
 whistle. 
 
 " Where is she ? " asked the Mayor. 
 
 " In the anteroom, sir." 
 
 " Any one else there ? " 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 " Did you say I was engaged ? " 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 5 
 
 " Yes, sir ; but it appears she asked Sam 
 who was with you, and when he told her, 
 she said, All right, she wanted to see Col 
 onel Pendleton too." 
 
 The men glanced interrogatively at each 
 other, but Colonel Pendleton, abruptly an 
 ticipating the Mayor s functions, said, 
 " Have her in," and settled himself back 
 in his chair. 
 
 A moment later the door opened, and the 
 stranger appeared. As she closed the door 
 behind her she removed her heavy veil, and 
 displayed the face of a very handsome 
 woman of past thirty. It is only necessary 
 to add that it was a face known to the two 
 men, and all San Francisco. 
 
 " Well, Kate," said the Mayor, motioning 
 to a chair, but without rising or changing 
 his attitude. " Here I am, and here is 
 Colonel Pendleton, and these are office 
 hours. What can we do for you ? " 
 
 If he had received her with magisterial 
 formality, or even politely, she would have 
 been embarrassed, in spite of a certain bold 
 ness of her dark eyes and an ever present 
 consciousness of her power. It is possible 
 that his own ease and that of his companion 
 was part of their instinctive good nature and 
 
6 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 perception. She accepted it as such, took 
 the chair familiarly, and seated herself side 
 ways upon it, her right arm half encircling 
 its back and hanging over it ; altogether an 
 easy and not ungraceful pose. 
 
 " Thank you, Jack I mean, Mr. Mayor 
 and you, too, Harry. I came on busi 
 ness. I want you two men to act as guar 
 dians for my little daughter." 
 
 " Your what ? " asked the two men simul 
 taneously. 
 
 "My daughter," she repeated, with a 
 short laugh, which, however, ended with a 
 note of defiance. "Of course you don t 
 know. Well," she added half aggressively, 
 and yet with the air of hurrying over a com 
 promising and inexplicable weakness, " the 
 long and short of it is I ve got a little girl 
 down at the Convent of Santa Clara, and 
 have had there ! I Ve been taking care 
 of her good care, too, boys for some 
 time. And now I want to put things square 
 for her for the future. See? I want to 
 make over to her all my property it s 
 nigh on to seventy-five thousand dollars, for 
 Bob Snelling put me up to getting those 
 water lots a year ago and, you see, I 11 
 have to have regular guardians, trustees, or 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 7 
 
 whatever you call em, to take care of the 
 money for her." 
 
 " Who s her father ? " asked the Mayor. 
 
 " What s that to do with it ? " she said 
 impetuously. 
 
 "Everything because he s her natural 
 guardian." 
 
 44 Suppose he is n t known ? Say dead, 
 for instance." 
 
 44 Dead will do," said the Mayor gravely. 
 " Yes, dead will do," repeated Colonel Pen- 
 dleton. After a pause, in which the two 
 men seemed to have buried this vague rel 
 ative, the Mayor looked keenly at the 
 woman. 
 
 44 Kate, have you and Bob Ridley had a 
 quarrel? " 
 
 44 Bob Ridley knows too much to quarrel 
 with me," she said briefly. 
 
 44 Then you are doing this for no motive 
 other than that which you tell me ? " 
 
 44 Certainly. That s motive enough 
 ain t it?" 
 
 44 Yes." The Mayor took his feet off his 
 companion s chair and sat upright. Col 
 onel Pendleton did the same, also removing 
 his cigar from his lips. 44 1 suppose you 11 
 think this thing over ? " he added. 
 
8 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 "No I want it done now right here 
 in this office. * 
 
 " But you know it will be irrevocable." 
 
 "That s what I want it something 
 might happen afterwards." 
 
 "But you are leaving nothing for your 
 self, and if you are going to devote every 
 thing to this daughter and lead a different 
 life, you ll" 
 
 "Who said I was?" 
 
 The two men paused, and looked at her. 
 
 " Look here, boys, you don t understand. 
 From the day that paper is signed, I ve 
 nothing to do with the child. She passes 
 out of my hands into yours, to be schooled, 
 educated, and made a rich girl out of 
 and never to know who or what or where 
 /am. She doesn t know now. I haven t 
 given her and myself away in that style 
 you bet ! She thinks I m only a friend. 
 She hasn t seen me more than once or 
 twice, and not to know me again. Why, I 
 was down there the other day, and passed 
 her walking out with the Sisters and the 
 other scholars, and she did n t know me 
 though one of the Sisters did. But they re 
 mum they are, and don t let on. Why, 
 now I think of it, you were down there, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 9 
 
 Jack, presiding in big style as Mr. Mayor 
 at the exercises. You must have noticed 
 her. Little thing, about nine lot of hair, 
 the same color as mine, and brown eyes. 
 White and yellow sash. Had a necklace 
 on of real pearls I gave her. / bought them, 
 you understand, myself at Tucker s gave 
 two hundred and fifty dollars for them 
 and a big bouquet of white rosebuds and 
 lilacs I sent her." 
 
 " I remember her now on the platform," 
 said the Mayor gravely. " So that is your 
 child?" 
 
 " You bet no slouch either. But that s 
 neither here nor there. What I want now 
 is you and Harry to look after her and her 
 property the same as if I did n t live. More 
 than that, as if I had never lived. I ve 
 come to you two boys, because I reckon 
 you re square men and won t give me away. 
 But I want to fix it even firmer than that. 
 I want you to take hold of this trust not as 
 Jack Hammersley, but as the Mayor of San 
 Francisco ! And when you make way for 
 a new Mayor, lie, takes up the trust by vir 
 tue of his office, you see, so there s a trustee 
 all along. I reckon there 11 always be a San 
 Francisco and always a Mayor at least till 
 
10 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the child s of age ; and it gives her from the 
 start a father, and a pretty big one too. Of 
 course the new man is n t to know the why 
 and wherefore of this. It s enough for him 
 to take on that duty with his others, with 
 out asking questions. And he s only got to 
 invest that money and pay it out as it s 
 wanted, and consult Harry at times." 
 
 The two men looked at each other with 
 approving intelligence. "But have you 
 thought of a successor for me, in case some 
 body shoots me on sight any time in the 
 next ten years ? " asked Pendleton, with a 
 gravity equal to her own. 
 
 " I reckon, as you re President of the 
 El Dorado Bank, you 11 make that a part 
 of every president s duty too. You ll get 
 the directors to agree to it, just as Jack 
 here will get the Common Council to make 
 it the Mayor s business." 
 
 The two men had risen to their feet, and, 
 after exchanging glances, gazed at her si 
 lently. Presently the Mayor said : 
 
 " It can be done, Kate, and we 11 do it 
 for you eh, Harry ? " 
 
 " Count me in," said Pendleton, nodding. 
 
 " But you 11 want a third man." 
 
 "What s that for?" 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. H 
 
 "The casting vote in case of any diffi 
 culty." 
 
 The woman s face fell. " I reckoned to 
 keep it a secret with only you two," she 
 said half bitterly. 
 
 " No matter. We 11 find some one to 
 act, or you 11 think of somebody and let us 
 know." 
 
 " But I wanted to finish this thing right 
 here," she said impatiently. She was silent 
 for a moment, with her arched black brows 
 knitted. Then she said abruptly, " Who s 
 that smart little chap that let me in ? He 
 looks as if he might be trusted." 
 
 "That s Paul Hathaway, my secretary. 
 He s sensible, but too young. Stop ! I 
 don t know about that. There s no legal 
 age necessary, and he s got an awfully old 
 head on him," said the Mayor thoughtfully. 
 
 " And / say his youth s in his favor," 
 said Colonel Pendleton, promptly. " He s 
 been brought up in San Francisco, and he s 
 got no d d old-fashioned Eastern notions 
 to get rid of, and will drop into this as a 
 matter of business, without prying about or 
 wondering. I ll serve with him." 
 
 " Call him in ! " said the woman. 
 
 He came. Very luminous of eye, and 
 
12 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 composed of lip and brow. Yet with the 
 same suggestion of " making believe " very 
 much, as if to offset the possible munching 
 of forbidden cakes and apples in his own 
 room, or the hidden presence of some still 
 in his pocket. 
 
 The Mayor explained the case briefly, but 
 with business-like precision. " Your duty, 
 Mr. Hathaway," he concluded, " at present 
 will be merely nominal and, above all, con 
 fidential. Colonel Pendleton and myself 
 will set the thing going." As the youth 
 who had apparently taken in and " illumi 
 nated " the whole subject with a single 
 bright-eyed glance bowed and was about 
 to retire, as if to relieve himself of his real 
 feelings behind the door, the woman stopped 
 him with a gesture. 
 
 " Let s have this thing over now," she 
 said to the Mayor. " You draw up some 
 thing that we can all sign at once." She 
 fixed her eyes on Paul, partly to satisfy her 
 curiosity and justify her predilection for 
 him, and partly to detect him in any overt 
 act of boyishness. But the youth simply 
 returned her glance with a cheerful, easy 
 prescience, as if her past lay clearly open 
 before him. For some minutes there was 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE 13 
 
 only the rapid scratching of the Mayor s 
 pen over the paper. Suddenly he stopped 
 and looked up. 
 
 " What s her name ? " 
 
 " She must n t have mine," said the wo 
 man quickly. " That s a part of my idea. 
 I give that up with the rest. She must 
 take a new name that gives no hint of me. 
 Think of one, can t you, you two men ? 
 Something that would kind of show that she 
 was the daughter of the city, you know." 
 
 " You could n t call her Santa Francisca, 
 eh ? " said Colonel Pendleton, doubtingly. 
 
 * Not much," said the woman, with a se 
 riousness that defied any ulterior insinuation. 
 
 " Nor Chrysopolinia ? " said the Mayor, 
 musingly. 
 
 " But that s only a first name. She must 
 have a family name," said the woman im 
 patiently. 
 
 " Can you think of something, Paul ? " 
 said the Mayor, appealing to Hathaway. 
 " You re a great reader, and later from 
 your classics than I am." The Mayor, 
 albeit practical and Western, liked to be 
 ostentatiously forgetful of his old Alma 
 Mater, Harvard, on occasions. 
 
 "How would Yerba Buena do, sir? " re- 
 
14 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 sponded the youth gravely. " It s the olr 1 
 Spanish title of the first settlement here, 
 conies from the name that Father Junipe. 
 Serra gave to the pretty little vine that 
 grows wild over the sandhills, and means 
 good herb. He called it A balm for the 
 wounded and sore. 
 
 " For the wounded and sore ? " repeats 
 the woman slowly. 
 
 " That s what they say," responded Hatl 
 away. 
 
 "You ain t playing us, eh?" she said, 
 with a half laugh that, however, scarcely 
 curved the open mouth with which she had 
 been regarding the young secretary. 
 
 " No," said the Mayor, hurriedly. " It s 
 true. I Ve often heard it. And a capital 
 name it would be for her too. Yerba the 
 first name. Buena the second. She could 
 be called Miss Buena when she grows up." 
 
 " Yerba Buena it is," she said suddenly. 
 Then, indicating the youth with a slight toss 
 of her handsome head, " His head s level 
 you can see that." 
 
 There was a silence again, and the scratch 
 ing of the Mayor s pen continued. Colonel 
 Pendleton buttoned up his coat, pulled his 
 long moustache into shape, slightly arranged 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 15 
 
 Jiis collar, and walked to the window with- 
 ,io ut looking at the woman. Presently the 
 oMayor arose from his seat, and, with a cer 
 tain formal courtesy that had been wanting 
 in his previous manner, handed her his pen 
 and arranged his chair for her at the desk. 
 She took the pen, and rapidly appended her 
 ignature to the paper. The others fol- 
 owed ; and, obedient to a sign from him, 
 .>>he porter was summoned from the outer 
 office to witness the signatures. When this 
 was over, the Mayor turned to his secretary. 
 " That s all just now, Paul." 
 
 Accepting this implied dismissal with un 
 disturbed gravity, the newly made youthful 
 guardian bowed and retired. When the 
 green baize door had closed upon him, the 
 Mayor turned abruptly to the woman with 
 the paper in his hand. 
 
 44 Look here, Kate ; there is still time for 
 you to reconsider your action, and tear up 
 this solitary record of it. If you choose to 
 do so, say so, and I promise you that this 
 interview, and all you have told us, shall 
 never pass beyond these walls. No one will 
 be the wiser for it, and we will give you full 
 credit for having attempted something that 
 was too much for you to perform." 
 
16 A WARD OF TUP: GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 She had half risen from her chair when 
 he began, but fell back again in her former 
 position and looked impatiently from him to 
 his companion, who was also regarding her 
 earnestly. 
 
 " What are you talking about ? " she said 
 sharply. 
 
 " You, Kate," said the Mayor. " You 
 have given everything you possess to this 
 child. What provision have you made for 
 yourself?" 
 
 " Do I look played out ? " she said, facing 
 them. 
 
 She certainly did not look like anything 
 but a strong, handsome, resolute woman ; 
 but the men did not reply. 
 
 " That is not all, Kate," continued the 
 Mayor, folding his arms and looking down 
 upon her. " Have you thought what this 
 means ? It is the complete renunciation not 
 only of any claim but any interest in your 
 child. That is what you have just signed, 
 and what it will be our duty now to keep 
 you to. From this moment we stand be 
 tween you and her, as we stand between her 
 and the world. Are you ready to see her 
 grow up away from you, losing even the lit 
 tle recollection she has had of your kindness 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLD JIN GATE. 17 
 
 passing you in the street without knowing 
 you, perhaps even having you pointed out 
 to her as a person she should avoid ? Are 
 you prepared to shut your eyes and ears 
 henceforth to all that you may hear of her 
 new life, when she is happy, rich, respec 
 table, a courted heiress perhaps the wife 
 of some great man ? Are you ready to ac 
 cept that she will never know that no one 
 will ever know that you had any share in 
 making her so, and that if you should ever 
 breathe it abroad we shall hold it our duty 
 to deny it, and brand the man who takes it 
 up for you as a liar and the slanderer of an 
 honest girl ? " 
 
 u That s what I came here for," she said 
 curtly ; then, regarding them curiously, and 
 running her ringed hand up and down the 
 railed back of her chair, she added, with a 
 half laugh, " What are you playin me for, 
 boys ? " 
 
 "But," said Colonel Pendleton, without 
 heeding her, " are you ready to know that 
 in sickness or affliction you will be power 
 less to help her ; that a stranger will take 
 your place at her bedside ; that as she has 
 lived without knowing you she will die with 
 out that knowledge, or that if through any 
 
18 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 weakness of yours it came to her then, it 
 would embitter her last thoughts of earth 
 and, dying, she would curse you ? " 
 
 The smile upon her half-open mouth still 
 fluttered around it, and her curved fingers 
 still ran up and down the rails of the chair- 
 back as if they were the cords of some mute 
 instrument, to which she was trying to give 
 voice. Her rings once or twice grated upon 
 them as if she had at times gripped tLem 
 closely. But she rose quickly when he 
 paused, said " Yes," sharply, and put the 
 chair back against the wall. 
 
 " Then I will send you copies of this to 
 morrow, and take an assignment of the prop- 
 erty." 
 
 u I Ve got the check here for it now," 
 she said, drawing it from her pocket and 
 laying it upon the desk. " There, I reckon 
 that s finished. Good-by ! " 
 
 The Mayor took up his hat, Colonel Pen- 
 dleton did the same ; both men preceded her 
 to the door, and held it open with grave po 
 liteness for her to pass. 
 
 " Where are you boys going ? " she asked, 
 glancing from the one to the other. 
 
 " To see you to your carriage, Mrs. How 
 ard," said the Mayor, in a voice that had be 
 come somewhat deeper. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 19 
 
 " Through the whole building ? Past all 
 the people in the hall and on the stairs ? 
 Why, I passed Dan Stewart as I came in." 
 
 " If you will allow us ? " he said, turning 
 half appealing to Colonel Pendleton, who, 
 without speaking, made a low bow of as 
 sent. 
 
 A slight flush rose to her face the first 
 and only change in the even healthy color 
 she had shown during the interview. 
 
 " I reckon I won t trouble you, boys, if 
 it s all the same to you," she said, with her 
 half-strident laugh. " You might n t mind 
 being seen but / would Good-by." 
 
 She held out a hand to each of the men, 
 who remained for an instant silently holding 
 them. Then she passed out of the door, 
 slipping on her close black veil as she did 
 so with a half-funereal suggestion, and they 
 saw her tall, handsome figure fade into the 
 shadows of the long corridor. 
 
 " Paul," said the Mayor, reentering the 
 office and turning to his secretary, " do you 
 know who that woman is ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " She s one in a million ! And now for 
 get that you have ever seen her." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE principal parlor of the New Golden 
 Gate Hotel in San Francisco, fairly reported 
 by the local press as being " truly palatial " 
 in its appointments, and unrivaled in its 
 upholstery, was, nevertheless, on August 5, 
 1860, of that startling newness that checked 
 any familiarity, and evidently had produced 
 some embarrassment on the limbs of four 
 visitors who had just been ushered into its 
 glories. After hesitating before one or two 
 gorgeous fawn-colored brocaded easy-chairs 
 of appalling and spotless virginity, one of 
 them seated himself despairingly on a tete- 
 a-tete sofa in marked and painful isolation, 
 while another sat uncomfortably upright on 
 a sofa. The two others remained standing, 
 vaguely gazing at the ceiling, and exchan 
 ging ostentatiously admiring but hollow re 
 marks about the furniture in unnecessary 
 whispers. Yet they were apparently men 
 of a certain habit of importance and small 
 authority, with more or less critical attitude 
 in their speech. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 21 
 
 To them presently entered a young man 
 of about five-and-twenty, with remarkably 
 bright and singularly sympathetic eyes. 
 Having swept the group in a smiling glance, 
 he singled out the lonely occupier of the 
 tete-a-tete, and moved pleasantly towards 
 him. The man rose instantly with an eager 
 gratified look. 
 
 " Well, Paul, I did n t allow you d re 
 member me. It s a matter of four years 
 since we met at Marysville. And now you re 
 bein a great man you ve " 
 
 No one could have known from the young 
 man s smiling face that he really had not 
 recognized his visitor at first, and that his 
 greeting was only an exhibition of one of 
 those happy instincts for which he was re 
 markable. But, following the clew suggested 
 by his visitor, he was able to say promptly 
 and gayly : 
 
 " I don t know why I should forget Tony 
 Shear or the Marysville boys," turning with 
 a half -confiding smile to the other visitors, 
 who, after the human fashion, were begin 
 ning to be resentfully impatient of this spe 
 cial attention. 
 
 " Well, no, for I ve allus said that you 
 took your first start from Marysville, But 
 
22 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 I ve brought a few friends of our party that 
 I reckoned to introduce to you. Cap n 
 Stidger, Chairman of our Central Commit 
 tee, Mr. Henry J. Hoskins, of the firm of 
 Hoskins and Bloomer, and Joe Slate, of the 
 Union Press, one of our most promising 
 journalists. Gentlemen," he continued, sud 
 denly and without warning lifting his voice 
 to an oratorical plane in startling contrast 
 to his previous unaffected utterance, "I 
 need n t say that this is the Honorable Paul 
 Hathaway, the youngest state senator in the 
 Legislature. You know his record ! " Then, 
 recovering the ordinary accents of humanity, 
 he added, " "VVe read of your departure last 
 night from Sacramento, and I thought we d 
 come early, afore the crowd." 
 
 " Proud to know you, sir," said Captain 
 Stidger, suddenly lifting the conversation to 
 the platform again. " I have followed your 
 career, sir. I ve read your speech, Mr. 
 Hathaway, and, as I was telling our mutual 
 friend, Mr. Shear, as we came along, I don t 
 know any man that could state the real party 
 issues as squarely. Your castigating exposi 
 tion of so-called Jeffersonian principles, and 
 your relentless indictment of the resolutions 
 of 98, were were " - coughed the cap- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 23 
 
 tain, dropping into conversation again 
 " were the biggest thing out. You have only 
 to signify the day, sir, that you will address 
 us, and I can promise you the largest audi 
 ence in San Francisco." 
 
 " I m instructed by the proprietor of the 
 Union Press, " said Mr. Slate, feeling for 
 his notebook and pencil, " to offer you its 
 columns for any explanations you may de 
 sire to make in the form of a personal letter 
 or an editorial in reply to the Advertiser s 
 strictures on your speech, or to take any in 
 formation you may have for the benefit of 
 our readers and the party." 
 
 "If you are ever down my way, Mr. 
 Hathaway," said Mr. Hoskins, placing a 
 large business card in Hathaway s hand, 
 " and will drop in as a friend, I can show 
 you about the largest business in the way of 
 canned provisions and domestic groceries in 
 the State, and give you a look around Bat 
 tery Street generally. Or if you 11 name 
 your day, I ve got a pair of 2.35 Blue Grass 
 horses that 11 spin you out to the Cliff House 
 to dinner and back. I ve had Governor 
 Fiske, and Senator Doolan, and that big 
 English capitalist who was here last year, 
 and they well, sir, they were pleased ! 
 
24 WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Or if you d like to see the town if this 
 is your first visit I in a hand to show 
 you." 
 
 Nothing could exceed Mr. Hathaway s 
 sympathetic acceptance of their courtesies, 
 nor was there the least affectation in it. 
 Thoroughly enjoying his fellowmen, even in 
 their foibles, they found him irresistibly at 
 tractive. "I lived here seven years ago," 
 he said, smiling, to the last speaker. 
 
 " When the water came up to Montgom 
 ery Street," interposed Mr. Shear, in a 
 hoarse but admiring aside. 
 
 " When Mr. Hammersley was mayor," 
 continued Hathaway. 
 
 " Had an official position private sec 
 retary afore he was twenty," explained 
 Shear, in perfectly audible confidence. 
 
 " Since then the city has made great 
 strides, leaping full-grown, sir, in a single 
 night," said Captain Stidger, hastily ascend 
 ing the rostrum again with a mixed meta 
 phor, to the apparent concern of a party of 
 handsomely dressed young ladies who had 
 recently entered the parlor. " Stretching 
 from South Park to Black Point, and run 
 ning back to the Mission Dolores and the 
 Presidio, we are building up a metropolis, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 25 
 
 sir, worthy to be placed beside the Golden 
 Gate that opens to the broad Pacific and the 
 shores of far Cathay ! When the Pacific 
 Railroad is built we shall be the natural 
 terminus of the Pathway of Nations ! " 
 
 Mr. Hathaway s face betrayed no con 
 sciousness that he had heard something like 
 this eight years before, and that much of it 
 had come true, as he again sympathetically 
 responded. Neither was his attention at 
 tracted by a singular similarity which the 
 attitude of the group of ladies on the other 
 side of the parlor bore to that of his own 
 party. They were clustered around one of 
 their own number a striking-looking girl 
 who was apparently receiving their min 
 gled flatteries and caresses with a youthful 
 yet critical sympathy, which, singularly 
 enough, was not unlike his own. It was evi 
 dent also that an odd sort of rivalry seemed 
 to spring up between the two parties, and 
 that, in proportion as Hathaway s admirers 
 became more marked and ostentatious in 
 their attentions, the supporters of the young 
 girl were equally effusive and enthusiastic 
 in their devotion. As usual in such cases, 
 the real contest was between the partisans 
 themselves ; each successive demonstration 
 
26 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 on either side was provocative or retaliatory, 
 and when they were apparently rendering 
 homage to their idols they were really dis 
 tracted by and listening to each other. At 
 last, Hathaway s party being reinforced by 
 fresh visitors, a tall brunette of the opposi 
 tion remarked in a professedly confidential 
 but perfectly audible tone : 
 
 " Well, my dear, as I don t suppose you 
 want to take part in a political caucus, per 
 haps we d better return to the Ladies Bou 
 doir, unless there s a committee sitting there 
 too." 
 
 " I know how valuable your time must be, 
 as you are all business men," said Hatha 
 way, turning to his party, in an equally au 
 dible tone ; " but before you go, gentlemen, 
 you must let me offer you a little refresh 
 ment in a private room," and he moved nat 
 urally towards the door. The rival fair, who 
 had already risen at their commander s sug 
 gestion, here paused awkwardly over an em 
 barrassing victory. Should they go or stay ? 
 The object of their devotion, however, turned 
 curiously towards Hathaway. For an in 
 stant their eyes met. The young girl turned 
 carelessly to her companions and said, " No ; 
 stay here it s the public parlor ; " and her 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 27 
 
 followers, evidently accustomed to her au 
 thority, sat down again. 
 
 " A galaxy of young ladies from the Con 
 vent of Santa Clara, Mr. Hathaway," ex 
 plained Captain Stidger, naively oblivious of 
 any discourtesy on their part, as he followed 
 Hathaway s glance and took his arm as they 
 moved away. " Not the least of our treas 
 ures, sir. Most of them daughters of pio 
 neers and all Californian bred and edu 
 cated. Connoisseurs have awarded them 
 the palm, and declare that for Grace, Intel 
 ligence, and Woman s Highest Charms the 
 East cannot furnish their equal ! " Having 
 delivered this Parthian compliment in an 
 oratorical passage through the doorway, the 
 captain descended, outside, into familiar 
 speech. " But I suppose you will find that 
 out for yourself if you stay here long. San 
 Francisco might furnish a fitting bride to 
 California s youngest senator." 
 
 " I am afraid that my stay here must be 
 brief, and limited to business," said Hatha 
 way, who had merely noticed that the prin 
 cipal girl was handsome and original-look 
 ing. " In fact, I am here partly to see an 
 old acquaintance Colonel Pendleton." 
 
 The three men looked at each other cu- 
 
28 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 riously. " Oh ! Harry Pendleton," said Mr. 
 Hoskins, incredulously. " You don t know 
 kirn?" 
 
 " An old pioneeer of course," inter 
 posed Shear, explanatorily and apologeti 
 cally. " Why, in Paul s time the colonel 
 was a big man here." 
 
 " I understand the colonel has been un 
 fortunate," said Hathaway, gravely ; " but 
 in my time he was President of the El Do 
 rado Bank." 
 
 " And the bank has n t got through its 
 settlement yet," said Hoskins. " I hope you 
 ain t expecting to get anything out of it ? * 
 
 " No," said Hathaway, smiling ; " I was a 
 boy at that time, and lived up to my salary. 
 I know nothing of his bank difficulties, but 
 it always struck me that Colonel Pendleton 
 was himself an honorable man." 
 
 " It ain t that," said Captain Stidger, en 
 ergetically, "but the trouble with Harry 
 Pendleton is that he has n t grown with the 
 State, and never adjusted himself to it. And 
 he won t. He thinks the Millennium was 
 between the fall of 49 and the spring of 
 50, and after that everything dropped. He 
 belongs to the old days, when a man s sim 
 ple word was good for any amount if you 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 29 
 
 knew him ; and they say that the old bank 
 had n t a scrap of paper for half that was 
 owing to it. That was all very well, sir, in 
 49 and 50, and Luck ; but it won t do 
 for 59 and 60, and Business ! And the 
 old man can t see it." 
 
 " But he is ready to fight for it now, as in 
 the old time," said Mr. Slate, " and that s 
 another trouble with his chronology. He s 
 done more to keep up dueling than any 
 other man in the State, and don t know the 
 whole spirit of progress and civilization is 
 against it." 
 
 It was impossible to tell from Paul Hath- 
 away s face whether his sympathy with Col 
 onel Pendleton s foibles or his assent to the 
 criticisms of his visitors was the truer. Both 
 were no doubt equally sincere. But the 
 party was presently engaged in the absorp 
 tion of refreshment, which, being of a purely 
 spirituous and exhilarating quality, tended 
 to increase their good humor with the host 
 till they parted. Even then a gratuitous 
 advertisement of his virtues and their own 
 intentions in calling upon him was oratori- 
 cally voiced from available platforms and 
 landings, in the halls and stairways, until it 
 was pretty well known throughout the 
 
30 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Golden Gate Hotel that the Hon. Mr. Paul 
 Hathaway had arrived from Sacramento and 
 had received a " spontaneous ovation." 
 
 Meantime the object of it had dropped 
 into an easy-chair by the window of his 
 room, and was endeavoring to recall a less 
 profitable memory. The process of human 
 forgetfulness is not a difficult one between 
 the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, and 
 Paul Hathaway had not only fulfilled the 
 Mayor s request by forgetting the particulars 
 of a certain transfer that he had witnessed 
 in the Mayor s office, but in the year suc 
 ceeding that request, being about to try his 
 fortunes in the mountains, he had formally 
 constituted Colonel Pendleton to act as his 
 proxy in the administration of Mrs. How 
 ard s singular Trust, in which, however, he 
 had never participated except yearly to sign 
 his name. He was, consequently, somewhat 
 astonished to have received a letter a few 
 days before from Colonel Pendleton, asking 
 him to call and see him regarding it. 
 
 He vaguely remembered that it was eight 
 years ago, and eight years had worked con 
 siderable change in the original trustees, 
 greatest of all in his superior officer, the 
 Mayor, who had died the year following, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 31 
 
 leaving his trusteeship to his successor in 
 office, whom Paul Hathaway had never seen. 
 The Bank of El Dorado, despite Mrs. How 
 ard s sanguine belief, had long been in 
 bankruptcy, and, although Colonel Pendle- 
 ton still survived it, it was certain that no 
 other president would succeed to his office 
 as trustee, and that the function would lapse 
 with him, Paul himself, a soldier of for 
 tune, although habitually lucky, had only 
 lately succeeded to a profession if his po 
 litical functions could be so described. Even 
 with his luck, energy, and ambition, while 
 everything was possible, nothing was secure. 
 It seemed, therefore, as if the soulless offi 
 cial must eventually assume the duties of 
 the two sympathizing friends who had origi 
 nated them, and had stood in loco parentis 
 to the constructive orphan. The mother, 
 Mrs. Howard, had disappeared a year after 
 the Trust had been made it was charita 
 bly presumed in order to prevent any com 
 plications that might arise from her presence 
 in the country. With these facts before 
 him, Paul Hathaway was more concerned in 
 wondering what Pendleton could want with 
 him than, I fear, any direct sympathy with 
 the situation. On the contrary, it appeared 
 
32 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to him more favorable for keeping the secret 
 of Mrs. Howard s relationship, which would 
 now die with Colonel Pendleton and him 
 self ; and there was no danger of any emo 
 tional betrayal of it in the cold official ad 
 ministration of a man who had received the 
 Trust through the formal hands of succes 
 sive predecessors. He had forgotten the 
 time limited for the guardianship, but the 
 girl must soon be of age and off their hands. 
 If there had ever been any romantic or 
 chivalrous impression left upon his memory 
 by the scene in the mayor s office, I fear he 
 had put it away with various other foolish 
 illusions of his youth, to which he now be 
 lieved he was superior. 
 
 Nevertheless, he would see the colonel, 
 and at once, and settle the question. He 
 looked at the address, " St. Charles Hotel." 
 He remembered an old hostelry of that 
 name, near the Plaza. Could it be possible 
 that it had survived the alterations and im 
 provements of the city? It was an easy 
 walk through remembered streets, yet with 
 changed shops and houses and faces. When 
 he reached the Plaza, scarce recognizable in 
 its later frontages of brick and stone, he 
 found the old wooden building still intact, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 33 
 
 with its villa-like galleries and verandas in 
 congruously and ostentatiously overlooked 
 by two new and aspiring erections on either 
 side. For an instant he tried to recall the 
 glamour of old days. He remembered when 
 his boyish eyes regarded it as the crowning 
 work of opulence and distinction ; he re 
 membered a ball given there on some public 
 occasion, which was to him the acme of so 
 cial brilliancy and display. How tawdry 
 and trivial it looked beside those later and 
 more solid structures ! How inconsistent 
 were those long latticed verandas and bal 
 conies, pathetic record of that first illusion 
 of the pioneers that their climate was a 
 tropical one ! A restaurant and billiard- 
 saloon had aggrandized all of the lower 
 story ; but there w r as still the fanlight, over 
 which the remembered title of " St. Charles," 
 in gilded letters, was now reinforced by the 
 too demonstrative legend, " Apartments and 
 Board, by the Day or Week." Was it pos 
 sible that this narrow, creaking staircase had 
 once seemed to him the broad steps of Fame 
 and Fortune ? On the first landing, a pre 
 occupied Irish servant-girl, with a mop, di 
 rected him to a door at the end of the pas 
 sage, at which he knocked. The door was 
 
34 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 opened by a grizzled negro servant, who was 
 still holding a piece of oily chamois-leather 
 in his hand ; and the contents of a dueling- 
 case, scattered upon a table in the centre of 
 the room, showed what had been his occu 
 pation. Admitting Hathaway with great 
 courtesy, he said : 
 
 " Marse Harry bin havin his qle trubble, 
 sah, and bin engaged just dis momen on 
 his toylet ; ef yo ll accommodate yo self on de 
 sofa, I inform him yo is heah." 
 
 As the negro passed into the next room, 
 Paul cast a hasty glance around the apart 
 ment. The furniture, originally rich and 
 elegant, was now worn threadbare and lus 
 treless. A book - case, containing, among 
 other volumes, a few law books there be 
 ing a vague tradition,; as Paul remembered, 
 that Colonel Pendleton had once been con 
 nected with the law a few French chairs 
 of tarnished gilt, a rifle in the corner, a 
 presentation sword in a mahogany case, a 
 few classical prints on the walls, and one or 
 two iron deed-boxes marked " El Dorado 
 Bank," were the principal objects. A mild 
 flavor of dry decay and methylated spirits 
 pervaded the apartment. Yet it was scru 
 pulously clean and well kept, and a few 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 35 
 
 clothes neatly brushed and folded on a chair 
 bore witness to the servant s care. As Paul, 
 however, glanced behind the sofa, he was 
 concerned to see a coat, which had evidently 
 been thrust hurriedly in a corner, with the 
 sleeve lining inside out, and a needle and 
 thread still sticking in the seam. It struck 
 him instantly that this had been the negro s 
 occupation, and that the pistol-cleaning was 
 a polite fiction. 
 
 " Yo 11 have to skuse Marse Harry seem 
 yo in bed, but his laig s pow ful bad to-day, 
 and he can t stand," said the servant reen- 
 tering the room. " Skuse me, sah," he 
 added in a dignified confidential whisper, 
 half closing the door with his hand, " but if 
 yo would n t mind avoidin xcitin or con- 
 troversical topics in yo conversation, it would 
 be de better fo him." 
 
 Paul smilingly assented, and the black re 
 tainer, with even more than the usual sol 
 emn ceremonious exaggeration of his race, 
 ushered him into the bedroom. It was fur 
 nished in the same faded glory as the sit 
 ting-room, with the exception of a low, iron 
 camp-bedstead, in which the tall, soldierly 
 figure of Colonel Pendleton, clad in thread 
 bare silk dressing-gown, was stretched. He 
 
36 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 had changed in eight years : his hair had 
 become gray, and was thinned over the 
 sunken temples, but his iron-gray moustache 
 was still particularly long and well pointed. 
 His face bore marks of illness and care; 
 there were deep lines down the angle of the 
 nostril that spoke of alternate savage out 
 break and repression, and gave his smile a 
 sardonic rigidity. His dark eyes, that shone 
 with the exaltation of fever, fixed Paul s on 
 entering, and with the tyranny of an invalid 
 never left them. 
 
 "Well, Hathaway?" 
 
 With the sound of that voice Paul felt 
 the years slip away, and he was again a boy, 
 looking up admiringly to the strong man, 
 who now lay helpless before him. He had 
 entered the room with a faint sense of sym 
 pathizing superiority and a consciousness of 
 having had experience in controlling men. 
 But all this fled before Colonel Pendleton s 
 authoritative voice ; even its broken tones 
 carried the old dominant spirit of the man, 
 and Paul found himself admiring a quality 
 
 in his old acquaintance that he missed in 
 , . i 
 
 his newer friends. 
 
 " I have n t seen you for eight years, 
 Hathaway. Come here and let me look at 
 you." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 37 
 
 Paul approached the bedside with boyish 
 obedience. Pendleton took his hand and 
 gazed at him critically. 
 
 " I should have recognized you, sir, for 
 all your moustache and your inches. The 
 last time I saw you was in Jack Hammers- 
 ley s office. Well, Jack s dead, and here / 
 am, little better, I reckon. You remember 
 Hammersley s house ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Paul, albeit wondering at the 
 question. 
 
 " Something like this, Swiss villa style. I 
 remember when Jack put it up. Well, the 
 last time I was out, I passed there. And 
 what do you think they ve done to it ? " 
 
 Paul could not imagine. 
 
 " Well, sir," said the colonel gravely, 
 " they ve changed it into a church missionary 
 shop and young men s Christian reading- 
 room ! But that s progress and 4 improve 
 ment ! " He paused, and, slowly with 
 drawing his hand from Paul s, added with 
 grim apology, " You re young, and belong 
 to the new school, perhaps. Well, sir, I ve 
 read your speech ; I don t belong to your 
 party mine died ten years ago but I 
 congratulate you. George ! Confound it ! 
 where s that boy gone ? " 
 
38 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 The negro indicated by this youthful title, 
 although he must have been ten years older 
 than his master, after a hurried shuffling in 
 the sitting-room eventually appeared at the 
 door. 
 
 " George, champagne and materials for 
 cocktails for the gentleman. The best, you 
 understand. No new-fangled notions from 
 that new barkeeper." 
 
 Paul, who thought he observed a troubled 
 blinking in George s eyelid, and referred it 
 to a fear of possible excitement for his pa 
 tient, here begged his host not to trouble 
 himself that he seldom took anything in 
 the morning. 
 
 "Possibly not, sir ; possibly not," returned 
 the colonel, hastily. " I know the new 
 ideas are prohibitive, and some other blank 
 thing, but you re safe here from your con 
 stituents, and by gad, sir, I shan t force you 
 to take it ! It s my custom, Hathaway an 
 old one played out, perhaps, like all the 
 others, but a custom nevertheless, and I m 
 only surprised that George, who knows it, 
 should have forgotten it." 
 
 "Fack is, Marse Harry," said George, 
 with feverish apology, u it bin gone scaped 
 my mind dis mo nin in de prorogation ob 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 39 
 
 business, but -I m goin now, shuah ! " and 
 he disappeared. 
 
 " A good boy, sir, but beginning to be 
 contaminated. Brought him here from 
 Nashville over ten years ago. Eight years 
 ago they proved to him that he was no longer 
 a slave, and made him d d unhappy until 
 I promised him it should make no difference 
 to him and he could stay. I had to send for 
 his wife and child of course, a dead loss 
 of eighteen hundred dollars when they set 
 foot in the State but I m blanked if he 
 is n t just as miserable with them here, for 
 he has to take two hours in the morning and 
 three in the afternoon every day to be with 
 em. I tried to get him to take his family 
 to the mines and make his fortune, like those 
 fellows they call bankers and operators and 
 stockbrokers nowadays ; or to go to Oregon 
 where they 11 make him some kind of a mayor 
 or sheriff but he won t. He collects my 
 rents on some little property I have left, and 
 pays my bills, sir, and, if this blank civiliza 
 tion would only leave him alone, he d be a 
 good enough boy." 
 
 Paul could n t help thinking that the rents 
 George collected were somewhat inconsistent 
 with those he was evidently mending when 
 
40 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 he arrived, but at that moment the jingle of 
 glasses was heard in the sitting-room, and 
 the old negro reappeared at the door. Draw 
 ing himself up with ceremonious courtesy, 
 he addressed Paul. " Wo d yo mind, sah, 
 taking a glance at de wine for yo choice ? " 
 Paul rose, and followed him into the sitting- 
 room, when George carefully closed the door. 
 To his surprise Hathaway beheld a tray with 
 two glasses of whiskey and bitters, but no 
 wine. " Skuse me, sah," said the old man 
 with dignified apology, " but de Kernel won t 
 have any but de best champagne for hono ble 
 gemmen like yo self, and I se despaired to 
 say it can t be got in de house or de sub- 
 burbs. De best champagne dat we gives 
 visitors is de Widder Glencoe. Wo d yo 
 mind, sah, for de sake o not xcitin de Ker 
 nel wid triflin culinary matter, to say dat 
 yo don take but de one brand ? " 
 
 "Certainly," said Paul, smiling. "I 
 really don t care for anything so early ; " 
 then, returning to the bedroom, he said care 
 lessly, " You 11 excuse me taking the lib 
 erty, colonel, of sending away the champagne 
 and contenting myself with whiskey. Even 
 the best brand the Widow Cliquot" 
 with a glance at the gratified George "I 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 41 
 
 find rather trying so early in the morn 
 ing." 
 
 "As you please, Hathaway," said the 
 colonel, somewhat stiffly. "I dare say 
 there s a new fashion in drinks now, and a 
 gentleman s stomach is a thing of the past. 
 Then, I suppose, we can spare the boy, as 
 this is his time for going home. Put that 
 tin box with the Trust papers on the bed, 
 George, and Mr. Hathaway will excuse your 
 waiting." As the old servant made an ex 
 aggerated obeisance to each, Paul remarked, 
 as the door closed upon him, " George cer 
 tainly keeps his style, colonel, in the face of 
 the progress you deplore." 
 
 " He was always a 4 dandy nigger, " re 
 turned Pendleton, his face slightly relaxing 
 as he glanced after his grizzled henchman, 
 " but his exaggeration of courtesy is a blank 
 sight more natural and manly than the exag 
 geration of discourtesy which your superior 
 civilized * helps think is self-respect. The 
 excuse of servitude of any kind is its spon 
 taneity and affection. When you know a 
 man hates you and serves you from interest, 
 you know he s a cur and you re a tyrant. 
 It s your blank progress that s made me 
 nial service degrading by teaching men to 
 
42 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 avoid it. Why, sir, when I first arrived here, 
 Jack Hammersley and myself took turns as 
 cook to the party. I did n t consider myself 
 any the worse master for it. But enough of 
 this." He paused, and, raising himself on 
 his elbow, gazed for some seconds half cau 
 tiously, half doubtfully, upon his companion. 
 " I ve got something to tell you, Hathaway," 
 he said, slowly. " You ve had an easy time 
 with this Trust; your share of the work 
 has n t worried you, kept you awake nights, 
 or interfered with your career. I understand 
 perfectly," he continued, in reply to Hatha- 
 way s deprecating gesture. " I accepted to 
 act as your proxy, and I have. I m not 
 complaining. But it is time that you should 
 know what I ve done, and what you may 
 still have to do. Here is the record. On 
 the day after that interview in the Mayor s 
 office, the El Dorado Bank, of which I was, 
 and still am, president, received seventy-five 
 thousand dollars in trust from Mrs. Howard. 
 Two years afterwards, on that same day, the 
 bank had, by lucky speculations, increased 
 that sum to the credit of the trust one hun 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars, or double 
 the original capital. In the following year 
 the bank suspended payment." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN an instant the whole situation and his 
 relations to it flashed upon Paul with a ter 
 rible, but almost grotesque, completeness. 
 Here he was, at the outset of his career, 
 responsible for the wasted fortune of the 
 daughter of a social outcast, and saddled 
 with her support! He now knew why 
 Colonel Pendleton had wished to see him ; 
 for one shameful moment he believed he also 
 knew why he had been content to take his 
 proxy! The questionable character of the 
 whole transaction, his own carelessness, 
 which sprang from that very confidence and 
 trust that Pendleton had lately extolled 
 what would, what could not be made of it ! 
 He already heard himself abused by his 
 opponents perhaps, more terrible still, 
 faintly excused by his friends. All this was 
 visible in his pale face and flashing eyes as 
 he turned them on the helpless invalid. 
 
 Colonel Pendleton received his look with 
 the same critical, half-curious scrutiny that 
 
44 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 had accompanied his speech. At last his 
 face changed slightly, a faint look of disap 
 pointment crossed his eyes, and a sardonic 
 smile deepened the lines of his mouth. 
 
 " There, sir," he said hurriedly, as if dis 
 missing an unpleasant revelation ; " don t 
 alarm yourself ! Take a drink of that whis 
 key. You look pale. Well ; turn your eyes 
 on those walls. You don t see any of that 
 money laid out here do you ? Look at me. 
 I don t look like a man enriched with other 
 people s money do I ? Well, let that con 
 tent you. Every dollar of that Trust fund, 
 Hathaway, with all the interests and profits 
 that have accrued to it, is safe ! Every cent 
 of it is locked up in government bonds with 
 Rothschild s agent. There are the receipts, 
 dated a week before the bank suspended. 
 But enough of that that is n t what I asked 
 you to come and see me for." 
 
 The blood had rushed back to Paul s 
 cheeks uncomfortably. He saw now, as im 
 pulsively as he had previously suspected his 
 co-trustee, that the man had probably ruined 
 himself to save the Trust. He stammered 
 that he had not questioned the management 
 of the fund nor asked to withdraw his proxy. 
 
 " No matter, sir," said the colonel, impa- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 45 
 
 tiently ; " you had the right, and I suppose," 
 he added with half -concealed scorn, " it was 
 your duty. But let that pass. The money 
 is safe enough ; but, Mr. Hathaway, and 
 this is the point I want to discuss with you, 
 it begins to look as if the secret was safe 
 no longer ! " He had raised himself with 
 some pain and difficulty to draw nearer to 
 Paul, and had again fixed his eyes eagerly 
 upon him. But Paul s responsive glance 
 was so vague that he added quickly, " You 
 understand, sir; I believe that there are 
 hounds I say hounds ! who would be 
 able to blurt out at any moment that that 
 girl at Santa Clara is Kate Howard s 
 daughter." 
 
 At any other moment Paul might have 
 questioned the gravity of any such contin 
 gency, but the terrible earnestness of the 
 speaker, his dominant tone, and a certain 
 respect which had lately sprung up in his 
 breast for him, checked him, and he only 
 asked with as much concern as he could 
 master for the moment : 
 
 44 What makes you think so ? " 
 
 44 That s what I want to tell you, Hatha 
 way, and how I, and I alone, am responsible 
 for it. When the bank was in difficulty and 
 
46 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 I made up my mind to guard the Trust with 
 my own personal and private capital, I knew 
 that there might be some comment on my 
 action. It was a delicate matter to show 
 any preference or exclusion at such a mo 
 ment, and I took two or three of my brother 
 directors whom I thought I could trust into 
 my confidence. I told them the whole story, 
 and how the Trust was sacred. I made a 
 mistake, sir," continued Pendleton sardon 
 ically, " a grave mistake. I did not take 
 into account that even in three years civili 
 zation and religion had gained ground here. 
 There was a hound there a blank Judas 
 in the Trust. Well ; he did n t see it. I 
 think he talked Scripture and morality. He 
 said something about the wages of sin being 
 infamous, and only worthy of confiscation. 
 He talked about the sins of the father be 
 ing visited upon the children, and justly. I 
 stopped him. Well ! Do you know what s 
 the matter with my ankle? Look!" He 
 stopped and, with some difficulty and invin 
 cible gravity, throwing aside his dressing- 
 gown, turned down his stocking, and exposed 
 to Paul s gaze the healed cicatrix of an old 
 bullet- wound. " Troubled me damnably near 
 a year. Where I hit him has n t troubled 
 him at all since ! 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 47 
 
 " I think," continued the colonel, falling 
 back upon the pillow with an air of relief, 
 " that he told others of his own kidney, 
 sir, though it was a secret among gentle 
 men. But they have preferred to be silent 
 now than afterwards. They know that 
 I m ready. But I can t keep this up long ; 
 some time, you know, they re bound to im 
 prove in practice and hit higher up ! As 
 far as I m concerned," he added, with a 
 grim glance around the faded walls and 
 threadbare furniture, " it don t mind ; but 
 mine isn t the mouth to be stopped." He 
 paused, and then abruptly, yet with a sudden 
 and pathetic dropping of his dominant note, 
 said : " Hathaway, you re young, and Ham- 
 mersley liked you what s to be done ? I 
 thought of passing over my tools to you. 
 You can shoot, and I hear you have. But 
 the h 1 of it is that if you dropped a man 
 or two people would ask why, and want to 
 know what it was about ; while, when I do, 
 nobody here thinks it anything but my way ! 
 I don t mean that it would hurt you with 
 the crowd to wipe out one or two of these 
 hounds during the canvass, but the trouble 
 is that they belong to your party, and," he 
 added grimly, "that wouldn t help your 
 
48 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " But," said Paul, ignoring the sarcasm, 
 " are you not magnifying the effect of a dis 
 closure ? The girl is an heiress, excellently 
 brought up. Who will bother about the 
 antecedents of the mother, who has disap 
 peared, whom she never knew, and who is 
 legally dead to her? " 
 
 " In my day, sir, no one who knew the 
 circumstances," returned the colonel, quickly. 
 " But we are living in a blessed era of Chris 
 tian retribution and civilized propriety, and 
 I believe there are a lot of men and women 
 about who have no other way of showing 
 their own virtue than by showing up an 
 other s vice. We re in a reaction of reform. 
 It s the old drunkards who are always more 
 clamorous for total abstinence than the mod 
 erately temperate. I tell you, Hathaway, 
 there could n t be an unluckier moment for 
 our secret coming out." 
 
 " But she will be of age soon." 
 
 " In two months." 
 
 " And sure to marry." 
 
 " Marry ! " repeated Pendleton, with grim 
 irony. " Would you marry her ? " 
 
 :t That s another question," said the young 
 man, promptly, " and one of individual taste ; 
 but it does not affect my general belief that 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 49 
 
 she could easily find a husband as good and 
 better." 
 
 " Suppose she found one before the secret 
 is out. Ought he be told ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " And that would imply telling her ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Paul, but not so promptly. 
 
 "And you consider that fulfilling the 
 promise of the Trust the pledges exchanged 
 with that woman?" continued Peudleton, 
 with glittering eyes and a return to his own 
 dominant tone. 
 
 " My dear colonel," said Paul, somewhat 
 less positively, but still smiling, " you have 
 made a romantic, almost impossible compact 
 with Mrs. Howard that, you yourself are now 
 obliged to admit, circumstances may prevent 
 your carrying out substantially. You forget, 
 also, that you have just told me that you 
 have already broken your pledge under cir 
 cumstances, it is true, that do you honor 
 and that now your desperate attempts to re 
 trieve it have failed. Now, I really see noth 
 ing wrong in your telling to a presumptive 
 well-wisher of the girl what you have told to 
 her enemy." 
 
 There was a dead silence. The prostrate 
 man uttered a slight groan, as if in pain, 
 
50 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 and drew up his leg to change his position. 
 After a pause, he said, in a restrained voice, 
 " I differ from you, Mr. Hathaway ; but 
 enough of this for the present. I have some 
 thing else to say. It will be necessary for 
 one of us to go at once to Santa Clara and 
 see Miss Yerba Buena." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " said Paul, quickly. 
 "Do you call her that? " 
 
 " Certainly, sir. You gave her the name. 
 Have you forgotten ? " 
 
 "I only suggested it," returned Paul, 
 hopelessly ; " but no matter go on." 
 
 " / cannot go there, as you see," continued 
 Pendleton, with a weary gesture towards his 
 crippled ankle ; " and I should particularly 
 like you to see her before we make the joint 
 disposition of her affairs with the Mayor, 
 two months hence. I have some papers you 
 can show her, and I have already written a 
 letter introducing you to the Lady Superior 
 at the convent, and to her. You have never 
 seen her?" 
 
 "No," said Paul. "But of course you 
 have?" 
 
 44 Not for three years." 
 Paul s eyes evidently expressed some won 
 der, for a moment after the colonel added. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 51 
 
 u I believe, Hathaway, I am looked upon as 
 a queer survival of a rather lawless and 
 improper past. At least, I have thought it 
 better not socially to compromise her by my 
 presence. The Mayor goes there at the 
 examinations and exercises, I believe, sir; 
 they make a sort of reception for him with 
 a a banquet lemonade and speeches." 
 
 " I had intended to leave for Sacramento 
 to-morrow night," said Paul, glancing cu 
 riously at the helpless man ; " but I will go 
 there if you wish." 
 
 " Thank you. It will be better." 
 
 There were a few words of further expla 
 nation of the papers, and Pendleton placed 
 the packet in his visitor s hands. Paul rose. 
 Somehow, it appeared to him that the room 
 looked more faded and forgotten than when 
 he entered it, and the figure of the man 
 before him more lonely, helpless, and aban 
 doned. With one of his sympathetic im 
 pulses he said : 
 
 "I don t like to leave you here alone. 
 Are you sure you can help yourself without 
 George ? Can I do anything before I go ? " 
 
 " I am quite accustomed to it," said Pen 
 dleton, quietly. " It happens once or twice 
 a year, and when I go out well I miss 
 more than I do here." 
 
52 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 He took Paul s proffered hand mechani 
 cally, with a slight return of the critical, 
 doubting look he had cast upon him when he 
 entered. His voice, too, had quite recovered 
 its old dominance, as he said, with half-pa 
 tronizing conventionality, "You ll have to 
 find your way out alone. Let me know how 
 you have sped at Santa Clara, will you? 
 Good-by." 
 
 The staircase and passage seemed to have 
 grown shabbier and meaner as Paul, slowly 
 and hesitatingly, descended to the street. 
 At the foot of the stairs he paused irresolutely, 
 and loitered with a vague idea of turning 
 back on some pretense, only that he might 
 relieve himself of the sense of desertion. He 
 had already determined upon making that 
 inquiry into the colonel s personal and 
 pecuniary affairs which he had not dared to 
 offer personally, and had a half-formed plan 
 of testing his own power and popularity in a 
 certain line of relief that at once satisfied 
 his sympathies and ambitions. Nevertheless, 
 after reaching the street, he lingered a mo 
 ment, when an odd idea of temporizing with 
 his inclinations struck him. At the farther 
 end of the hotel one of the parasites living 
 on its decayed fortunes was a small barber s 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 53 
 
 shop. By having his hair trimmed and his 
 clothes brushed he could linger a little longer 
 beneath the same roof with the helpless soli 
 tary, and perhaps come to some conclusion. 
 He entered the clean but scantily furnished 
 shop, and threw himself into one of the 
 nearest chairs, hardly noting that there were 
 no other customers, and that a single assist 
 ant, stropping a razor behind a glass door, 
 was the only occupant. But there was a 
 familiar note of exaggerated politeness about 
 the voice of this man as he opened the door 
 and came towards the back of the chair with 
 the formula : 
 
 " Mo nin , sah ! Shall we hab de pleshure 
 of shavin or hah-cuttin dis mo nin ? " Paul 
 raised his eyes quickly to the mirror before 
 him. It reflected the black face and grizzled 
 hair of George. 
 
 More relieved at finding the old servant 
 still near his master than caring to compre 
 hend the reason, Hathaway said pleasantly, 
 " Well, George, is this the way you look 
 after your family ? " 
 
 The old man started ; for an instant his 
 full red lips seemed to become dry and ashen, 
 the whites of his eyes were suffused and 
 staring, as he met Paul s smiling face in the 
 
64 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 glass. But almost as quickly he recovered 
 himself, and, with a polite but deprecating 
 bow, said, " For God sake, sah ! I admit 
 de sarkurnstances is agin me, but de simple 
 fack is dat I m temper ly occupyin de place 
 of an ole frien , sah, who is called round de 
 cornah." 
 
 " And I m devilish glad of any fact, 
 George, that gives me a chance of having 
 my hair cut by Colonel Pendleton s right- 
 hand man. So fire away ! " 
 
 The gratified smile which now suddenly 
 overspread the whole of the old man s face, 
 and seemed to quickly stiffen the rugged and 
 wrinkled fingers that had at first trembled 
 in drawing a pair of shears from a ragged 
 pocket, appeared to satisfy Paul s curiosity 
 for the present. But after a few moments 
 silent snipping, during which he could detect 
 in the mirror some traces of agitation still 
 twitching the negro s face, he said with an 
 air of conviction : 
 
 " Look here, George why don t you 
 regularly use your leisure moments in this 
 trade ? You d make your fortune by your 
 taste and skill at it." 
 
 For the next half minute the old man s 
 frame shook with silent childlike laughter 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 55 
 
 behind Paul s chair. " Well, Marse Hatha 
 way, yo s an ole frien o my massa, and a 
 gemman yo self, sah, and a senetah, and 1 
 do aii mind tellin yo dat s jess what I 
 bin gone done ! It makes a little ready 
 money for de ole woman and de chilleren. 
 But de Kernel don no . Ah, sah ! de Ker 
 nel kill me or hisself if he so much as spi- 
 cioned me. De Kernel is high-toned, sah ! 
 bein a gemman yo self, yo understand. 
 He would n t heah ob his niggah worken for 
 two massas for all he s willen to lemme 
 go and help myse f. But, Lord bless yo , 
 sah, dat ain t in de category ! De Kernel 
 could n t get along widout me." 
 
 " You collect his rents, don t you ? " said 
 Paul, quietly. 
 " Yes, sah." 
 "Much?" 
 
 " Well, no, sah ; not so much as fom ly, 
 sah ! Yo see, de Kernel s prop ty lies in de 
 ole parts ob de town, where de po white folks 
 lib, and dey ain t reg lar. De Kernel dat 
 sof in his heart, he dare n press em ; some 
 of em is ole fo ty-niners, like hisself, sah ; 
 and some is Spanish, sah, and dey is sof 
 too, and ain t no more gumption dan chil 
 leren, and tink it s ole time come ag in, and 
 
56 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 dey s in de ole places like afo de Mexican 
 wall ! and dey don bin payin noffin . But 
 we gets along, sah, we gets along, not 
 in de prima facie style, sah ! mebbe not in 
 de modden way dut de Kernel don t like ; 
 but we keeps ourse f, sah, and has wine fo 
 our friends. When yo come again, sah, 
 yo 11 find de Widder Glencoe on de side 
 board." 
 
 " Has the colonel many friends here ? " 
 "Mos de ole ones bin done gone, sah, 
 and de Kernel don cotton to de new. He 
 don mix much in sassiety till de bank settle 
 ments bin gone done. Skuse me, sah ! 
 but you don happen to know when dat is ? 
 It would be a pow ful heap off de Kernel s 
 mind if it was done. Bein a high and 
 mighty man in committees up dah in Sac 
 ramento, sah, I didn t know but what yo 
 might know as it might come befo yo ." 
 
 " I 11 see about it," said Paul, with an 
 odd, abstracted smile. 
 
 " Shampoo dis mornen , sah ? " 
 " Nothing more in this line," said Paul, 
 rising from his chair, " but something more, 
 perhaps, in the line of your other duties. 
 You re a good barber for the public, George, 
 and I don t take back what I said about 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 57 
 
 your future; but just now I think the colo 
 nel wants all your service. He s not at all 
 well. Take this," he said, putting a twenty- 
 dollar gold piece in the astonished servant s 
 hand, "and for the next three or four days 
 drop the shop, and under some pretext or 
 another arrange to be with him. That 
 money will cover what you lose here, and as 
 soon as the colonel s all right again you 
 can come back to work. But are you not 
 afraid of being recognized by some one? " 
 
 " No, sah, dat s just it. On y strangers 
 dat don t know no better come yere." 
 
 " But suppose your master should drop 
 in? It s quite convenient to his rooms." 
 
 " Marse Harry in a barber-shop ! " said 
 the old man with a silent laugh. " Skuse 
 me, sah," he added, with an apologetic mix 
 ture of respect and dignity, " but f o twenty 
 years no man hez touched de Kernel s chin 
 but myself. When Marse Harry hez to go 
 to a barber s shop, it won t make no matter 
 who s dar." 
 
 44 Let s hope he will not," said Paul gayly; 
 then, anxious to evade the gratitude which, 
 since his munificence, he had seen beaming 
 in the old negro s eye and evidently trying 
 to find polysyllabic and elevated expression 
 
58 A WARD OF THE GOLD EX GATE. 
 
 on his lips, he said hurriedly, " I shall ex 
 pect to find you with the colonel when I 
 call again in a day or two," and smilingly 
 departed. 
 
 At the end of two hours George s barber- 
 employer returned to relieve his assistant, 
 and, on receiving from him an account and 
 a certain percentage of the afternoon s fees 
 (minus the gift from Paul), was informed 
 by George that he should pretermit his 
 attendance for a few days. " Udder private 
 and personal affairs," explained the old 
 negro, who made no social distinction in his 
 vocabulary, " peroccupyin dis niggah s time." 
 The head barber, unwilling to lose a really 
 good assistant, endeavored to dissuade him 
 by the offer of increased emolument, but 
 George was firm. 
 
 As he entered the sitting-room the colonel 
 detected his step, and called him in. 
 
 " Another time, George, never allow a 
 guest of mine to send away wine. If he 
 don t care for it, put it on the sideboard." 
 
 44 Yes, sah; but as yo didn t like it 
 yo self, Marse Harry, and de wine was de 
 most xpensive quality ob Glencoe " 
 
 " D n the expense ! " He paused, and 
 gazed searchingly at his old retainer. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 59 
 
 "George," he said suddenly, yet in a 
 gentle voice, " don t lie to me, or " in a 
 still kinder voice "I 11 flog the black skin 
 off you ! Listen to me. Have you got any 
 money left?" 
 
 " Deed, sah, dere is," said the negro 
 earnestly. "I ll jist fetch it wid de ac 
 counts." 
 
 " Hold on ! I ve been thinking, lying 
 here, that if the Widow Molloy can t pay 
 because she sold out, and that tobacconist is 
 ruined, and we ve had to pay the water tax 
 for old Bill Soames, the rent last week don t 
 amount to much, while there s the month s 
 bill for the restaurant and that blank drug 
 gist s account for lotions and medicines to 
 come out of it. It strikes me we re pretty 
 near touching bottom. I ve everything I 
 want here, but, by God, sir, if I find you 
 skimping yourself or lying to me or borrow 
 ing money " 
 
 "Yes, Marse Harry, but the Widder 
 Molloy done gone and paid up dis afernoon. 
 I 11 bring de books and money to prove it ; " 
 and he hurriedly reentered the sitting-room. 
 
 Then with trembling hands he emptied 
 his pockets on the table, including Paul s 
 gift and the fees he had just received, and 
 
60 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 opening a desk-drawer took from it a striped 
 cotton handkerchief, such as negro women 
 wear on their heads, containing a small 
 quantity of silver tied up in a hard knot, and 
 a boy s purse. This he emptied on the table 
 with his own money. 
 
 They were the only rents of Colonel 
 Henry Pendleton ! They were contributed 
 by "George Washington Thomson;" his 
 wife, otherwise known as "Aunt Dinah," 
 washerwoman ; and " Scipio Thomson," 
 their son, aged fourteen, bootblack. It did 
 not amount to much. But in that happy 
 moisture that dimmed the old man s eyes, 
 God knows it looked large enough. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the rays of an unclouded sun 
 were hot in the Santa Clara roads and by 
 ways, and the dry, bleached dust had become 
 an impalpable powder, the perspiring and 
 parched pedestrian who rashly sought relief 
 in the shade of the wayside oak was speedily 
 chilled to the bone by the northwest trade- 
 winds that on those August afternoons swept 
 through the defiles of the Coast Range, and 
 even penetrated the pastoral valley of San 
 Jose. The anomaly of straw hats and over 
 coats with the occupants of buggies and 
 station wagons was thus accounted for, and 
 even in the sheltered garden of " El Rosario " 
 two young girls in light summer dresses had 
 thrown wraps over their shoulders as they 
 lounged down a broad rose-alley at right 
 angles with the deep, long veranda of the 
 casa. Yet, in spite of the chill, the old 
 Spanish house and gardens presented a lux 
 urious, almost tropical, picture from the 
 roadside. Banks, beds, and bowers of roses 
 
62 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 lent their name and color to the grounds ; 
 tree-like clusters of hanging fuchsias, mound- 
 like masses of variegated verbena, and 
 tangled thickets of ceanothus and spreading 
 heliotrope were set in boundaries of vener 
 able olive, fig, and pear trees. The old 
 house itself, a picturesque relief to the glaring 
 newness of the painted villas along the road, 
 had been tastefully modified to suit the 
 needs and habits of a later civilization ; the 
 galleries of the inner courtyard, or patio, 
 had been transferred to the outside walls in 
 the form of deep verandas, while the old 
 adobe walls themselves were hidden beneath 
 flowing Cape jessamine or bestarred passion 
 vines, and topped by roofs of cylindrical red 
 tiles. 
 
 " Miss Yerba ! " said a dry, masculine 
 voice from the veranda. 
 
 The taller young girl started, and drew 
 herself suddenly behind a large Castilian 
 rose-treej dragging her companion with her, 
 and putting her finger imperatively upon a 
 pretty but somewhat passionate mouth. The 
 other girl checked a laugh, and remained 
 watching her friend s wickedly leveled brows 
 in amused surprise. 
 
 The call was repeated from the veranda. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 63 
 
 After a moment s pause there was the sound 
 of retreating footsteps, and all was quiet 
 again. 
 
 "Why, for goodness sake, didn t you 
 answer, Yerba ? " asked the shorter girl. 
 
 " Oh, I hate him ! " responded Yerba. 
 " He only wanted to bore me with his stupid, 
 formal, sham-parental talk. Because he s 
 my official guardian he thinks it necessary 
 to assume this manner towards me when we 
 meet, and treats me as if I were something 
 between his stepdaughter and an almshouse 
 orphan or a police board. It s perfectly 
 ridiculous, for it s only put on while he is in 
 office, and he knows it, and I know it, and 
 I m tired of making believe. Why, my 
 dear, they change every election ; I ve had 
 seven of them, all more or less of this kind, 
 since I can remember." 
 
 "But I thought there were two others, 
 dear, that were not official," said her com 
 panion, coaxingly. 
 
 Yerba sighed. " No ; there was another, 
 who was president of a bank, but that was 
 also to be official if he died. I used to like 
 him, he seemed to be the only gentleman 
 among them ; but it appears that he is dread 
 fully improper ; shoots people now and then 
 
64 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 for nothing at all, and burst up his bank 
 and, of course, he s impossible, and, as 
 there s no more bank, when he dies there 11 
 be no more trustee." 
 
 "And there s the third, you know a 
 stranger, who never appears?" suggested 
 the younger girl. 
 
 " And who do you suppose he turns out to 
 be ? Do you remember that conceited little 
 wretch that Baby Senator, I think they 
 called him who was in the parlor of the 
 Golden Gate the other morning surrounded 
 by his idiotic worshipers and toadies and 
 ballot-box stuffers? Well, if you please, 
 that s Mr. Paul Hathaway the Honorable 
 Paul Hathaway, who washed his hands of 
 me, my dear, at the beginning ! " 
 
 "But really, Yerba, I thought that he 
 looked and acted " 
 
 " You thought of nothing at all, Milly," 
 returned Yerba, with authority. "I tell 
 you he s a mass of conceit. What else 
 can you expect of a Man toadied and 
 fawned upon to that extent? It made me 
 sick ! I could have just shaken them ! " 
 
 As if to emphasize her statement, she 
 grasped one of the long willowy branches of 
 the enormous rose-bush where she stood, and 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 65 
 
 shook it lightly. The action detached a 
 few of the maturer blossoms, and sent down 
 a shower of faded pink petals on her dark 
 hair and yellow dress. " I can t bear conceit," 
 she added. 
 
 " Oh, Yerba, just stand as you are ! I do 
 wish the girls could see you. You make the 
 loveliest picture ! " 
 
 She certainly did look very pretty as she 
 stood there a few leaves lodged in her 
 
 O 
 
 hair, clinging to her dress, and suggesting 
 by reflection the color that her delicate satin 
 skin would have resented in its own texture. 
 But she turned impatiently away perhaps 
 not before she had allowed this passing vision 
 to impress the mind of her devoted adherent 
 and said, " Come along, or that dreadful 
 man will be out on the veranda again." 
 
 " But, if you dislike him so, why did you 
 accept the invitation to meet him here at 
 luncheon ? " said the curious Milly. 
 
 " / did n t accept ; the Mother Superior 
 did for me, because he s the Mayor of San 
 Francisco visiting your uncle, and she s al 
 ways anxious to placate the powers that be. 
 And I thought he might have some informa 
 tion that I could get out of him. And it 
 was better than being in the convent all day. 
 
66 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 And I thought I could stand him if you were 
 here." 
 
 Milly gratefully accepted this doubtful 
 proof of affection by squeezing her compan 
 ion s arm. " And you did n t get any infor 
 mation, dear?" 
 
 " Of course not ! The idiot knows only 
 the old tradition of his office that I was a 
 mysterious Trust left in Mayor Hammers- 
 ley s hands. He actually informed me that 
 4 Bueiia meant Good ; that it was likely 
 the name of the captain of some whaler, that 
 put into San Francisco in the early clays, 
 whose child I was, and that, if I chose to 
 call myself 4 Miss Good, he would allow it, 
 and get a bill passed in the Legislature to 
 legalize it. Think of ifc, my dear ! Miss 
 Good, like one of Mrs. Barbauld s stories, 
 or a moral governess in the Primary 
 Header. " 
 
 " 4 Miss Good, " repeated Milly, innocent 
 ly. " Yes, you might put an e at the end 
 G-double-o-d-e. There are Goodes in Phila 
 delphia. And then you won t have to sacri 
 fice that sweet pretty Yerba, that s so 
 stylish and musical, for you d still be 4 Yerba 
 Good. But," she added, as Yerba made an 
 impatient gesture, " why do you worry your- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 67 
 
 self about that ? You would n t keep your 
 own name long, whatever it was. An heiress 
 like you, dear, lovely and accomplished, 
 would have the best names as well as the 
 best men in America to choose from." 
 
 " Now please don t repeat that idiot s 
 words. That s what he says ; that s what 
 they all say!" returned Yerba, pettishly. 
 " One would really think it was necessary 
 for me to get married to become anybody at 
 all, or have any standing whatever. And, 
 whatever you do, don t go talking of me as 
 if I were named after a vegetable. Yerba 
 Buena is the name of an island in the bay 
 just off San Francisco. I m named after 
 that." 
 
 " But I don t see the difference, dear. 
 The island was named after the vine that 
 grows on it." 
 
 "You don t see the difference?" said 
 Yerba, darkly. " Well, / do. But what 
 are you looking at ? " 
 
 Her companion had caught her arm, and 
 was gazing intently at the house. 
 
 " Yerba," she said quickly, " there s the 
 Mayor, and uncle, and a strange gentleman 
 coming down the walk. They re looking 
 for us. And, as I live, Yerb ! the strange 
 
68 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 gentleman is that young senator, Mr. Hath 
 away ! " 
 
 " Mr. Hathaway ? Nonsense ! " 
 
 " Look for yourself." 
 
 Yerba glanced at the three gentlemen, 
 who, a hundred yards distant, were slowly 
 advancing in the direction of the ceanothus- 
 hedge, behind which the girls had instinc 
 tively strayed during their conversation. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " said Milly, 
 eagerly. " They re coming straight this 
 way. Shall we stay here and let them pass, 
 or make a run for the house ? " 
 
 "No," said Yerba, to Milly s great sur 
 prise. "That would look as if we cared. 
 Besides, I don t know that Mr. Hathaway 
 has come to see me. We ll stroll out and 
 meet them accidentally." 
 
 Milly was still more astonished. However, 
 she said, " Wait a moment, dear ! " and, with 
 the instinctive deftness of her sex, in three 
 small tugs and a gentle hitch, shook Yerba s 
 gown into perfect folds, passed her fingers 
 across her forehead and over her ears, secur 
 ing, however, with a hairpin on their passage 
 three of the rose petals where they had 
 fallen. Then, discharging their faces of any 
 previous expression, these two charming 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 69 
 
 hypocrites sallied out innocently into the 
 walk. Nothing could be more natural than 
 their manner : if a criticism might be ven 
 tured upon, it was that their elbows were 
 slightly drawn inwards and before them, 
 leaving their hands gracefully advanced 
 in the line of their figures, an attitude 
 accepted throughout the civilized world of 
 deportment as indicating fastidious refine 
 ment not unmingled with permissible hau 
 teur. 
 
 The three gentlemen lifted their hats at 
 this ravishing apparition, and halted. The 
 Mayor advanced with great politeness. 
 
 " I feared you did n t hear me call you, 
 Miss Yerba, so we ventured to seek you." 
 As the two girls exchanged almost infantile 
 glances of surprise, he continued : " Mr. 
 Paul Hathaway has done us the honor of 
 seeking you here, as he did not find you at 
 the convent. You may have forgotten that 
 Mr. Hathaway is the third one of your 
 trustees." 
 
 " And so inefficient and worthless that I 
 fear he does n t count," said Paul, " but," 
 raising his eyes to Yerba s, " I fancy that I 
 have already had the pleasure of seeing you, 
 and, I fear, the mortification of having dis- 
 
70 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 turbed you and your friends in the parlor of 
 the Golden Gate Hotel yesterday." 
 
 The two girls looked at each other with 
 the same childlike surprise. Yerba broke 
 the silence by suddenly turning to Milly. 
 " Certainly, you remember how greatly inter 
 ested we were in the conversation of a party 
 of gentlemen who were there when we came 
 in. I am afraid our foolish prattle must 
 have disturbed you. I know that we were 
 struck with the intelligent and eloquent de 
 votion of your friends." 
 
 " Oh, perfectly," chimed in the loyal but 
 somewhat infelix Milly ; " and it was so 
 kind and thoughtful of Mr. Hathaway to 
 take them away as he did." 
 
 " I felt the more embarrassed," continued 
 Hathaway, smiling, but still critically exam 
 ining Yerba for an indication of something 
 characteristic, beyond this palpable conven 
 tionality, "as I unfortunately must present 
 my credentials from a gentleman as much of 
 a stranger as myself Colonel Pendleton." 
 
 The trade-wind was evidently making itself 
 felt even in this pastoral retreat, for the two 
 gentlemen appeared to shrink slightly within 
 themselves, and a chill seemed to have passed 
 over the group. The Mayor coughed. The 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 71 
 
 avuncular Woods gazed abstractedly at a 
 large cactus. Even Paul, prepared by pre 
 vious experience, stopped short. 
 
 " Colonel Pendleton ! Oh, do tell me all 
 about him ! " flashed out Yerba, suddenly, 
 with clasped hands and eager girlish breath. 
 
 Paul cast a quick grateful glance at the 
 girl. Whether assumed or not, her enthu 
 siastic outburst was effective. The Mayor 
 looked uneasily at Woods, and turned to 
 Paul. 
 
 " Ah, yes ! You and he are original co- 
 trustees. I believe Pendleton is in reduced 
 circumstances. Never quite got over that 
 bank trouble." 
 
 " That is only a question of legislative 
 investigation and relief," said Paul lightly, 
 yet with purposely vague official mystery of 
 manner. Then, turning quickly to Yerba, 
 as if replying to the only real question at 
 issue, he continued pointedly, " I am sorry 
 to say the colonel s health is so poor that it 
 keeps him quite a recluse. I have a letter 
 from him and a message for you." His 
 bright eyes added plainly "as soon as we 
 can get rid of those people." 
 
 "Then you think that a bill " began 
 the Mayor, eagerly. 
 
72 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 u 
 
 I think, my dear sir," said Paul plain 
 tively, " that I and my friends have already 
 tried the patience of these two young ladies 
 quite enough yesterday with politics and 
 law-making. I have to catch the six-o clock 
 train to San Francisco this evening, and 
 have already lost the time I hoped to spend 
 with Miss Yerba by missing her at the con 
 vent. Let me stroll on here, if you like, 
 and if I venture to monopolize the attention 
 of this young lady for half an hour, you, my 
 dear Mr. Mayor, who have more frequent 
 access to her, I know, will not begrudge it to 
 me." 
 
 He placed himself beside Yerba and 
 Milly, and began an entertaining, although, 
 I fear, slightly exaggerated, account of his 
 reception by the Lady Superior, and her ev 
 ident doubts of his identity with the trustee 
 mentioned in Pendleton s letter of introduc 
 tion. "I confess she frightened me," he 
 continued, " when she remarked that, accord 
 ing to my statement, I could have been only 
 eighteen years old when I became your 
 guardian, and as much in want of one as 
 you were. I think that only her belief that 
 Mr. Woods and the Mayor would detect me 
 as an impostor provoked her at last to tell 
 me your whereabouts." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 73 
 
 " But why did they ever make you a 
 trustee, for goodness sake ? " said Milly, 
 naively. " Was there no one grown up at 
 that time that they could have called upon ? " 
 
 " Those were the early days of California," 
 responded Paul, with great gravity, although 
 he was conscious that Yerba was regarding 
 him narrowly, " and I probably looked older 
 and more intelligent than I really was. For, 
 candidly," with the consciousness of Yerba s 
 eyes still upon him, " I remember very little 
 about it. I dare say I was selected, as you 
 kindly suggest, 4 for goodness sake. 
 
 " After all," said the volatile Milly, who 
 seemed inclined, as chaperone, to direct the 
 conversation, " there was something pretty 
 and romantic about it. You two poor young 
 things taking care of each other, for of course 
 there were no women here in those days." 
 
 " Of course there were women here," in 
 terrupted Yerba, quickly, with a half-mean 
 ing, half-interrogative glance at Paul that 
 made him instinctively uneasy. " You later 
 comers " to Milly " always seem to think 
 that there was nothing here before you ! " 
 She paused, and then added, with a nai ve 
 mixture of reproach and coquetry that was 
 as charming as it was unexpected, "As to 
 
74 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 taking care of each other, Mr. Hathaway 
 very quickly got rid of me, I believe." 
 
 " But I left you in better hands, Miss 
 Yerba; and let me thank you now," he 
 added in a lower tone, "for recognizing it 
 as you did a moment ago. I m glad that 
 you instinctively liked Colonel Pendleton. 
 Had you known him better, you would have 
 seen how truthful that instinct was. His 
 chief fault in the eyes of our worthy friends 
 is that he reminds them of a great deal they 
 can t perpetuate and much they would like 
 to forget." He checked himself abruptly. 
 " But here is your letter," he resumed, draw 
 ing Colonel Pendleton s missive from his 
 pocket, " perhaps you would like to read it 
 now, in case you have any message to return 
 by me. Miss Woods and I will excuse 
 you." 
 
 They had reached the end of the rose- 
 alley, where a summer-house that was in it 
 self a rose-bower partly disclosed itself. The 
 other gentlemen had lagged behind. " I 
 will amuse myself, and console your other 
 guardian, dear," said the vivacious Milly, 
 with a rapid exchange of glances with 
 Yerba, " until this horrid business is over. 
 Besides," she added with cheerful vague- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 75 
 
 ness, " after so long a separation you must 
 have a great deal to say to each other." 
 
 Paul smiled as she rustled away, and 
 Yerba, entering the summer-house, sat down 
 and opened the letter. The young man re 
 mained leaning against the rustic archway, 
 occasionally glancing at her and at the mov 
 ing figures in the gardens. He was con 
 scious of an odd excitement which he could 
 trace to no particular cause. It was true 
 that he had been annoyed at not finding the 
 young girl at the convent, and at having to 
 justify himself to the Lady Superior for 
 what he conceived to be an act of gratuitous 
 kindness ; nor was he blind to the fact that 
 his persistence in following her was more 
 an act of aggression against the enemies of 
 Pendleton than of concern for Yerba. She 
 was certainly pretty ; he could not remem 
 ber her mother sufficiently to trace any like 
 ness, and he had never admired the mother s 
 pronounced beauty. She had flashed out 
 for an instant into what seemed originality 
 and feeling. But it had passed, and she 
 had asked no further questions in regard to 
 the colonel. 
 
 She had hurriedly skimmed through the 
 letter, which seemed to be composed of cer- 
 
76 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 tain figures and accounts. " I suppose it s 
 all right," she said ; " at least you can say 
 so if he asks you. It s only an explanation 
 why he has transferred my money from the 
 bank to Rothschild s agent years ago. I don t 
 see why it should interest me now." 
 
 Paul made no doubt that it was the same 
 transfer that had shipwrecked the colonel s 
 fortune and alienated his friends, and could 
 not help replying somewhat pointedly, " But 
 I think it should, Miss Yerba. I don t know 
 what the colonel explained to you doubt 
 less, not the whole truth, for he is not a man 
 to praise "himself ; but, the fact is, the bank 
 was in difficulties at the time of that trans 
 fer, and, to make it, he sacrificed his per 
 sonal fortune, and, I think, awakened some 
 of that ill-feeling you have just noticed." 
 He checked himself too late : he had again 
 lost not only his tact and self-control, but 
 had nearly betrayed himself. He was sur 
 prised that the girl s justifiable ignorance 
 should have irritated him. Yet she had evi 
 dently not noticed, or misunderstood it, for 
 she said, with a certain precision that was 
 almost studied : 
 
 " Yes, I suppose it would have been a ter 
 rible thing to him to have been suspected of 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 77 
 
 misappropriating a Trust confided to him by 
 parties who had already paid him the high 
 compliment of confiding to his care a secret 
 and a fortune." 
 
 Paul glanced at her quickly with astonish 
 ment. Was this ignorance, or suspicion ? 
 Her manner, however, suddenly changed, 
 with the charming capriciousness of youth 
 and conscious beauty. " He speaks of you 
 in this letter," she said, letting her dark eyes 
 rest on him provokingly. 
 
 " That accounts for your lack of interest 
 then," said Paul gayly, relieved to turn a 
 conversation fraught with so much danger. 
 
 " But he speaks very flatteringly," she 
 went on. " He seems to be another one of 
 your admirers. I m sure, Mr. Hathaway, 
 after that scene in the hotel parlor yester 
 day, you, at least, cannot complain of hav 
 ing been misrepresented before me. To tell 
 you the truth, I think I hated you a little 
 for it." 
 
 " You were quite right," returned Paul. 
 "I must have been insufferable! And I 
 admit that I was slightly piqued against you 
 for the idolatries showered upon you at the 
 same moment by your friends." 
 
 Usually, when two young people have 
 
78 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 reached the point of confidingly exchanging 
 their first impressions of each other, some 
 progress has been made in first acquaint 
 ance. But it did not strike Paul in that 
 way, and Yerba s next remark was discour 
 aging. 
 
 " But I m rather disappointed, for all 
 that. Colonel Pendleton tells me you know 
 nothing of ray family or of the secret." 
 
 Paul was this time quite prepared, and 
 withstood the girl s scrutiny calmly. " Do 
 you think," he asked lightly, " that even he 
 knows?" 
 
 " Of course he does," she returned quickly. 
 " Do you suppose he would have taken all 
 that trouble you have just talked about if 
 he did n t know it ? And feared the conse 
 quences, perhaps ? " she added, with a slight 
 return of her previous expressive manner. 
 
 Again Paul was puzzled and irritated, he 
 knew not why. But he only said pleasantly, 
 " I differ from you there. I am afraid that 
 such a thing as fear never entered into Colonel 
 Pendleton s calculations on any subject. I 
 think he would act the same towards the high 
 est and the lowest, the powerful or the most 
 weak." As she glanced at him quickly and 
 mischievously, he added, " I am quite will- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 79 
 
 ing to believe that his knowledge of you 
 made his duty pleasanter." 
 
 He was again quite sincere, and his slight 
 sympathy had that irresistible quality of 
 tone and look which made him so dangerous. 
 For he was struck with the pretty, soothed 
 self-complacency that had shone in her face 
 since he had spoken of Pendleton s equal 
 disinterestedness. It seemed, too, as if what 
 he had taken for passion or petulance in her 
 manner had been only a resistance to some 
 continual aggression of condition. With 
 that remainder held in check, a certain la 
 tent nobility was apparent, as of her true 
 self. In this moment of pleased abstrac 
 tion she had drawn through the lattice-work 
 of one of the windows a spray of roses 
 clinging to the vine, and with her graceful 
 head a little on one side, was softly caressing 
 her cheek with it. She certainly was very 
 pretty. From the crown of her dark little 
 head to the narrow rosetted slippers that 
 had been idly tapping the ground, but now 
 seemed to press it more proudly, with arched 
 insteps and small ankles, she was pleasant 
 to look upon. 
 
 " But you surely have something else to 
 think about, Miss Yerba ? " said the young 
 
80 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 man, with conviction. "In a few months 
 you will be of age, and rid of those dread 
 fully stupid guardians ; with your " 
 
 The loosened rose-spray flew from her 
 hand out of the window as she made a ges 
 ture, half real, half assumed, of imploring 
 supplication. " Oh, please, Mr. Hathaway, 
 for Heaven s sake don t you begin too ! You 
 are going to say that, with my wealth, my 
 accomplishments, my beauty, my friends, 
 what more can I want ? What do I care 
 about a secret that can neither add to them 
 nor take them away ? Yes, you were ! It s 
 the regular thing to say everybody says 
 it. Why, I should have thought 4 the young 
 est senator could afford to have been more 
 original." 
 
 " I plead guilty to all the weaknesses of 
 humanity," said Paul, warmly, again begin 
 ning to believe that he had been most unjust 
 to her independence. 
 
 " Well, I forgive you, because you have 
 forgotten to say that, if I don t like the 
 name of Yerba Buena, I could so easily 
 change that too." 
 
 " But you do like it," said Paul, touched 
 with this first hearing of her name in her 
 own musical accents, " or would like it if 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 81 
 
 you heard yourself pronounce it." It sud 
 denly recurred to him, with a strange thrill 
 of pleasure, that he himself had given it to 
 her. It was as if he had created some mu 
 sical instrument to which she had just given 
 voice. In his enthusiasm he had thrown 
 himself on the bench beside her in an atti 
 tude that, I fear, was not as dignified as be 
 came his elderly office. 
 
 " But you don t think that is my name" 
 said the girl, quickly. 
 
 " I beg your pardon ? " said Paul, hesitat 
 ingly. 
 
 " You don t think that anybody would 
 have been so utterly idiotic as to call me af 
 ter a ground- vine a vegetable ? " she con 
 tinued petulantly. 
 
 " Eh ? " stammered Paul. 
 
 "A name that could be so easily trans 
 lated," she went on, half scornfully, " and 
 when translated, was no possible title for 
 anybody ? Think of it Miss Good Herb ! 
 It is too ridiculous for anything." 
 
 Paul was not usually wanting in self-pos 
 session in an emergency, or in skill to meet 
 attack. But he was so convinced of the 
 truth of the girl s accusation, and now re 
 called so vividly his own consternation on 
 
82 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 hearing the result of his youthful and ro 
 mantic sponsorship for the first time from 
 Pendleton, that he was struck with confu 
 sion. 
 
 " But what do you suppose it was intended 
 for ? " he said at last, vaguely. " It was 
 certainly 4 Yerba Buena in the Trust. At 
 least, I suppose so," he corrected himself 
 hurriedly. 
 
 "It is only a supposition," she said quietly, 
 " for you know it cannot be proved. The 
 Trust was never recorded, and the only copy 
 could not be found among Mr. Hammers- 
 ley s papers. It is only part of the name, 
 of which the first is lost." 
 
 " Part of the name ? " repeated Paul, un 
 easily. 
 
 Part of it. It is a corruption of de la 
 Yerba Buena, of the Yerba Buena, and 
 refers to the island of Yerba Buena in the 
 bay, and not to the plant. That island was 
 part of the property of my family the Ar- 
 guellos you will find it so recorded in the 
 Spanish grants. My name is Arguello de 
 la Yerba Buena." 
 
 It is impossible to describe the timid yet 
 triumphant, the half-appealing yet compla 
 cent, conviction of the girl s utterance. A 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 83 
 
 moment before, Paul would have believed 
 it impossible for him to have kept his grav 
 ity and his respect for his companion under 
 this egregious illusion. But he kept both. 
 For a sudden conviction that she suspected 
 the truth, and had taken this audacious and 
 original plan of crushing it, overpowered all 
 other sense. The Arguellos, it flashed upon 
 him, were an old Spanish family, former 
 owners of Yerba Buena Island, who had in 
 the last years become extinct. There had 
 been a story that one of them had eloped 
 with an American ship captain s wife at 
 Monterey. The legendary history of early 
 Spanish California was filled with more re 
 markable incidents, corroborated with little 
 difficulty from Spanish authorities, who, it 
 was alleged, lent themselves readily to any 
 fabrication or forgery. There was no racial 
 pride : on the contrary, they had shown an 
 eager alacrity to ally themselves with their 
 conquerors. The friends of the Arguellos 
 would be proud to recognize and remember 
 in the American heiress the descendant of 
 their countrymen. All this passed rapidly 
 through his mind after the first moment of 
 surprise ; all this must have been the delib 
 erate reasoning of this girl of seventeen, 
 
84 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 whose dark eyes were bent u^on him. 
 Whether she was seeking corroboration or 
 complicity he could not tell. 
 
 " Have you found this out yourself ? " he 
 asked, after a pause. 
 
 14 Yes. One of my friends at the convent 
 was Josita Castro ; she knew all the history 
 of the Arguellos. She is perfectly satis 
 fied." 
 
 For an instant Paul wondered if it was a 
 joint conception of the two schoolgirls. But, 
 on reflection, he was persuaded that Yerba 
 would commit herself to no accomplice of 
 her own sex. She might have dominated 
 the girl, and would make her a firm parti 
 san, while the girl would be convinced of it 
 herself, and believe herself a free agent. 
 He had had such experience with men him 
 self. 
 
 " But why have you not spoken of it be 
 fore and to Colonel Pendleton ? " 
 
 "He did not choose to tell me," said 
 Yerba, with feminine dexterity. " I have 
 preferred to keep it myself a secret till I am 
 of age." 
 
 " When Colonel Pendleton and some of 
 the other trustees have no right to say any 
 thing," thought Paul quickly. She had evi- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 85 
 
 dently trusted him. Yet, fascinated as he 
 had been by her audacity, he did not know 
 whether to be pleased, or the reverse. He 
 would have preferred to be placed on an 
 equal footing with Josita Castro. She an 
 ticipated his thoughts by saying, with half- 
 raised eyelids : 
 
 " What do you think of it ? " 
 
 " It seems to be so natural and obvious an 
 explanation of the mystery that I only won 
 der it was not thought of before," said Paul, 
 with that perfect sincerity that made his 
 sympathy so effective. 
 
 " You see," still under her pretty eye 
 lids, and the tender promise of a smile part 
 ing her little mouth, "I m believing that 
 you tell the truth when you say you don t 
 know anything about it." 
 
 It was a desperate moment with Paul, but 
 his sympathetic instincts, and possibly his 
 luck, triumphed. His momentary hesitation 
 easily simulated the caution of a conscien 
 tious man ; his knit eyebrows and bright 
 eyes, lowered in an effort of memory, did 
 the rest. " I remember it all so indistinctly," 
 he said, with literal truthfulness ; " there 
 was a veiled lady present, tall and dark, to 
 whom Mayor Hammersley and the colonel 
 
86 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 showed a singular, and, it struck me, as an 
 almost superstitious, respect. I remember 
 now, distinctly, I was impressed with the 
 reverential way they both accompanied her 
 to the door at the end of the interview." 
 He raised his eyes slightly ; the young girl s 
 red lips were parted; that illumination of 
 the skin, which was her nearest approach to 
 color, had quite transfigured her face. He 
 felt, suddenly, that she believed it, yet he 
 had no sense of remorse. He half believed 
 it himself ; at least, he remembered the no 
 bility of the mother s self-renunciation and 
 its effect upon the two men. Why should 
 not the daughter preserve this truthful pic 
 ture of her mother s momentary exaltation ? 
 Which was the most truthful that, or the 
 degrading facts ? " You speak of a secret," 
 he added. " I can remember little more 
 than that the Mayor asked me to forget 
 from that moment the whole occurrence. I 
 did not know at the time how completely I 
 should fulfill his request. You must remem 
 ber, Miss Yerba, as your Lady Superior 
 has, that I was absurdly young at the time. 
 I don t know but that I may have thought, 
 in my youthful inexperience, that this sort 
 of thing was of common occurrence. And 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 87 
 
 then, I had my own future to make and 
 youth is brutally selfish. I was quite friend 
 less and unknown when I left San Francisco 
 for the mines, at the time you entered the 
 convent as Yerba Buena." 
 
 She smiled, and made a slight impulsive 
 gesture, as if she would have drawn nearer 
 to him, but checked herself, still smiling, 
 and without embarrassment. It may have 
 been a movement of youthful camaraderie, 
 and that occasional maternal rather than 
 sisterly instinct which sometimes influences 
 a young girl s masculine friendship, and ele 
 vates the favored friend to the plane of the 
 doll she has outgrown. As he turned 
 towards her, however, she rose, shook out 
 her yellow dress, and said with pretty petu 
 lance : 
 
 " Then you must go so soon and this 
 your first and last visit as my guardian ? " 
 
 " No one could regret that more than I," 
 looking at her with undefined meaning. 
 
 "Yes," she said, with a tantalizing co 
 quetry that might have suggested an under 
 lying seriousness. " I think you have lost a 
 good deal. Perhaps, so have I. We might 
 have been good friends in all these years. 
 But that is past." 
 
88 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 "Why? Surely, I hope, my shortcom 
 ings with Miss Yerba Buena will not be re 
 membered by Miss Arguello?" said Paul, 
 earnestly. 
 
 " Ah ! She may be a very different per 
 son." 
 
 " I hope not," said the young man, warmly. 
 "But how different?" 
 
 "Well, she may not put herself in the 
 way of receiving such point-blank compli 
 ments as that," said the young girl, de 
 murely. 
 
 "Not from her guardian ? " 
 " She will have no guardian then." She 
 said this gravely, but almost at the same 
 moment turned and sat down again, throw 
 ing her linked hands over her knee, and 
 looked at him mischievously. " You see 
 what you have lost, sir." 
 
 " I see," said Paul, but with all the grav 
 ity that she had dropped. 
 
 " No ; but you don t see all. I had no 
 brother no friend. You might have been 
 both. You might have made me what you 
 liked. You might have educated me far 
 better than these teachers, or, at least given 
 me some pride in my studies. There were 
 so many things I wanted to know that they 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 89 
 
 could n t teach me ; so many times I wanted 
 advice from some one that I could trust. 
 Colonel Pendleton was very good to me 
 when he came ; he always treated me like a 
 princess even when I wore short frocks. It 
 was his manner that first made me think he 
 knew my family ; but I never felt as if I 
 could tell him anything, and I don t think, 
 with all his chivalrous respect, he ever un 
 derstood me. As to the others the May 
 ors well, you may judge from Mr. Hen 
 derson. It is a wonder that I did not run 
 away or do something desperate. Now, are 
 you not a little sorry? " 
 
 Her voice, which had as many capricious 
 changes as her manner, had been alternately 
 coquettish, petulant, and serious, had now 
 become playful again. But, like the rest of 
 her sex, she was evidently more alert to her 
 surroundings at such a moment than her 
 companion, for before he could make any 
 reply, she said, without apparently looking, 
 " But there is a deputation coming for you, 
 Mr. Hathaway. You see, the case is hope 
 less. You never would be able to give to 
 one what is claimed by the many." 
 
 Paul glanced down the rose-alley, and 
 saw that the deputation in question was com- 
 
90 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 posed of the Mayor, Mr. Woods, a thin, 
 delicate - looking woman, evidently Mrs. 
 Woods, and Milly. The latter managed 
 to reach the summer-house first, with ap 
 parently youthful alacrity, but really to ex 
 change, in a single glance, some mysterious 
 feminine signal with Yerba. Then she said 
 with breathless infelicity : 
 
 " Before you two get bored with each other 
 now, I must tell 3 T ou there s a chance of you 
 having more time. Aunty has promised to 
 send off a note excusing you to the Reverend 
 Mother, if she can persuade Mr. Hathaway 
 to stay over to-night. But here they are. 
 [To Yerba] Aunty is most anxious, and 
 won t hear of his going." 
 
 Indeed, it seemed as if Mrs. Woods was, 
 after a refined fashion, most concerned that 
 a distinguished visitor like Mr. Hathaway 
 should have to use her house as a mere acci 
 dental meeting-place with his ward, without 
 deigning to accept her hospitality. She was 
 reinforced by Mr. Woods, who enunciated 
 the same idea with more masculine vigor ; 
 and by the Mayor, who expressed his con 
 viction that a slight of this kind to Rosario 
 would be felt in the Santa Clara valley. 
 " After dinner, my dear Hathaway," con- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 91 
 
 eluded Mr. Woods, "a few of our neigh 
 bors may drop in, who would be glad to 
 shake you by the hand no formal meeting, 
 my boy but, hang it ! they expect it." 
 
 Paul looked around for Yerba. There 
 was really no reason why he should n t ac 
 cept, although an hour ago the idea had 
 never entered his mind. Yet, if he did, he 
 would like the girl to know that it was for 
 her sake. Unfortunately, far from exhibit 
 ing any concern in the matter, she seemed 
 to be preoccupied with Milly, and only the 
 charming back of her head was visible be 
 hind Mrs. Woods. He accepted, however, 
 with a hesitation that took some of the gra- 
 ciousness from his yielding, and a sense that 
 he was giving a strange importance to a 
 trivial circumstance. 
 
 The necessity of attaching himself to his 
 hostess, and making a more extended tour 
 of the grounds, for a while diverted him 
 from an uneasy consideration of his past 
 interview. Mrs. Woods had known Yerba 
 through the school friendship of Milly, and, 
 as far as the religious rules of the convent 
 would allow, had always been delighted to 
 show her any hospitality. She was a beau 
 tiful girl did not Mr. Hathaway think so ? 
 
92 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 and a girl of great character. It was a 
 pity, of course, that she had never known a 
 mother s care, and that the present routine 
 of a boarding-school had usurped the tender 
 influences of home. She believed, too, that 
 the singular rotation of guardianship had 
 left the girl practically without a counsel 
 ing friend to rely upon, except, perhaps, 
 Colonel Pendleton; and while she, Mrs. 
 Woods, did not for a moment doubt that the 
 colonel might be a good friend and a pleas 
 ant companion of men, really he, Mr. Hath 
 away, must admit that, with his reputation 
 and habits, he was hardly a fit associate for 
 a young lady. Indeed, Mr. Woods would 
 have never allowed Milly to invite Yerba 
 here if Colonel Pendleton was to have been 
 her escort. Of course, the poor girl could 
 not choose her own guardian, but Mr. Woods 
 said he had a right to choose who should be 
 his niece s company. Perhaps Mr. Woods 
 was prejudiced, most men were, yet 
 surely Mr. Hathaway, although a loyal 
 friend of Colonel Pendleton s, must admit 
 that when it was an open scandal that the 
 colonel had fought a duel about a notoriously 
 common woman, and even blasphemously 
 defended her before a party of gentlemen, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 93 
 
 it was high time, as Mr. Woods said, that 
 he should be remanded to their company 
 exclusively. No; Mrs. Woods could not 
 admit that this was owing to the injustice of 
 her own sex ! Men are really the ones who 
 make the fuss over those things, just as they, 
 as Mr. Hathaway well knew, made the laws I 
 No ; it was a great pity, as she and her hus 
 band had just agreed, that Mr. Hathaway, 
 of all the guardians, could not have been 
 always the help and counselor in fact, 
 the elder brother of poor Yerba! Paul 
 was conscious that he winced slightly, con 
 sistently and conscientiously, at the recol 
 lection of certain passages of his youth ; in 
 consistently and meanly, at this suggestion 
 of a joint relationship with Yerba s mother. 
 
 " I think, too," continued Mrs. Woods, 
 " she has worried foolishly about this ridic 
 ulous mystery of her parentage as if it 
 could make the slightest difference to a girl 
 with a quarter of a million, or as if that 
 did n t show quite conclusively that she was 
 somebody ! " 
 
 " Certainly," said Paul, quickly, with a 
 relief that he nevertheless felt was ridicu 
 lous. 
 
 " And, of course, I dare say it will all 
 
94 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 come out when she is of age. I suppose 
 you know if any of the family are still liv- 
 ino-9" 
 
 iA1 O 
 
 " I really do not." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Mrs. Woods, 
 with a smile. " I forgot it s a profound 
 secret until then. But here we are at the 
 house ; I see the girls have walked over to 
 our neighbors . Perhaps you would like to 
 have a few moments to yourself before you 
 dress for dinner, and your portmanteau, 
 which has been sent for, comes from your 
 hotel. You must be tired of seeing so many 
 people." 
 
 Paul was glad to accept any excuse for 
 being alone, and, thanking his hostess, fol 
 lowed a servant to his room a low-ceil- 
 inged but luxuriously furnished apartment 
 on the first floor. Here he threw himself 
 on a cushioned lounge that filled the angle 
 of the deep embrasure the thickness of 
 the old adobe walls that formed a part 
 of the wooden-latticed window. A Cape 
 jessamine climbing beside it filled the room 
 with its subtle, intoxicating perfume. It 
 was so strong, and he felt himself so irre 
 sistibly overpowered and impelled towards 
 a merely idle reverie, that, in order to think 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 95 
 
 more clearly and shut out some strange and 
 unreasoning enthrallment of his senses, he 
 rose and sharply closed the window. Then 
 he sat down and reflected. 
 
 What was he doing here? and what was 
 the meaning of all this? He had come 
 simply to fulfill a duty to his past, and please 
 a helpless and misunderstood old acquaint 
 ance. He had performed that duty. But he 
 had incidentally learned a certain fact that 
 might be important to this friend, and clearly 
 his duty was simply to go back and report 
 it. He would gain nothing more in the way 
 of corroboration of it by staying now, if 
 further corroboration were required. Colo 
 nel Pendleton had already been uselessly 
 and absurdly perplexed about the possible 
 discovery of the girl s parentage, and its 
 effect upon her fortunes and herself. She 
 had just settled that of her own accord, and, 
 without committing herself or others, had 
 suggested a really sensible plan by which 
 all trouble would be avoided in future. That 
 was the common-sense way of looking at it. 
 He would lay the plan before the colonel, 
 have him judge of its expediency and its 
 ethics and even the question whether she 
 already knew the real truth, or was self-de- 
 
96 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 ceived. That done, he would return to his 
 own affairs in Sacramento. There was noth 
 ing difficult in this, or that need worry him, 
 only he could have done it just as well an 
 hour ago. 
 
 He opened the window again. The scent 
 of the jessamine came in as before, but min 
 gled with the cooler breath of the roses. 
 There was nothing intoxicating or unreal in 
 it now ; rather it seemed a gentle aromatic 
 stimulant of thought. Long shadows of 
 unseen poplars beyond barred the garden 
 lanes and alleys with bands of black and 
 yellow. A slanting pencil of sunshine 
 through the trees was for a moment f ocussed 
 on a bed of waxen callas before a hed<re of 
 
 O 
 
 ceanothus, and struck into dazzling relief 
 the cold white chalices of the flowers and 
 the vivid shining green of their background. 
 Presently it slid beyond to a tiny fountain, 
 before invisible, and wrought a blinding 
 miracle out of its flashing and leaping spray. 
 Yet even as he gazed the fountain seemed 
 to vanish slowly, the sunbeam slipped on, 
 and beyond it moved the shimmer of white 
 and yellow dresses. It was Yerba and Milly 
 returning to the house. Well, he would 
 not interrupt his reflections by idly watching 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 97 
 
 them ; he would, probably, see a great deal 
 of Yerba that evening, and by that time he 
 would have come to some conclusion in re 
 gard to her. 
 
 But he had not taken into consideration 
 her voice, which, always musical in its 
 Southern intonation and quite audible in the 
 quiet garden, struck him now as being full 
 of joyous sweetness. Well, she was certainly 
 very happy or very thoughtless. She 
 was actually romping with Milly, and was 
 now evidently being chased down the rose- 
 alley by that volatile young woman. Then 
 these swift Camillas apparently neared the 
 house, there was the rapid rustle of skirts, 
 the skurrying of little feet on the veranda, 
 a stumble, a mouse-like shriek from Milly, 
 and her voice, exhausted, dying, happy, 
 broken with half-hushed laughter, rose to 
 him on the breath of the jessamine and 
 rose. 
 
 Surely she was a child, and, if a child, 
 how he had misjudged her ! What if all 
 that he had believed was mature deliberation 
 was only the innocent imaginings of a ro 
 mantic girl, all that he had taken seriously 
 only a school-girl s foolish dream ! Instead 
 of combating it, instead of reasoning with 
 
98 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 her, instead of trying to interest her in other 
 things, he had even helped on her illusions. 
 He had treated her as if the taint of her 
 mother s wo rldliness and knowledge of evil 
 was in her pure young flesh. He had recog 
 nized her as the daughter of an adventuress, 
 and not as his ward, appealing to his chivalry 
 through her very ignorance it might be 
 her very childish vanity. He had brought 
 to a question of tender and pathetic interest 
 only his selfish opinion of the world and the 
 weaknesses of mankind. The blood came to 
 his cheeks with all his experienced self- 
 control, he had not lost the youthful trick 
 of blushing and he turned away from the 
 window as if it had breathed a reproach. 
 
 But ought he have even contented himself 
 with destroying her illusions ought he not 
 have gone farther and told her the whole 
 truth? Ought he not first have won her 
 confidence he remembered bitterly, now, 
 how she had intimated that she had no one 
 to confide in and, after revealing her 
 mother s history, have still pledged himself 
 to keep the secret from all others, and assisted 
 her in her plan ? It would not have altered 
 the state of affairs, except so far as she was 
 concerned ; they could have combined to- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 99 
 
 gether ; his ready wit would have helped him ; 
 and his sympathy would have sustained her ; 
 but 
 
 How and in what way could he have told 
 her ? Leaving out the delicate and difficult 
 periphrase by which her mother s shame 
 would have to be explained to an innocent 
 school-girl what right could he have as 
 sumed to tell it ? As the guardian who had 
 never counseled or protected her? As an 
 acquaintance of hardly an hour ago ? Who 
 would have such a right? A lover on 
 whose lips it would only seem a tacit appeal 
 to her gratitude or her fears, and whom no 
 sensitive girl could accept thereafter? No. 
 A husband? Yes! He remembered, with 
 a sudden start, what Pendleton had said to 
 him. Good Heavens ! Had Pendleton that 
 idea in his mind? And yet it seemed 
 the only solution. 
 
 A knock at his door was followed by the 
 appearance of Mr. Woods. Mr. Hathaway s 
 portmanteau had come, and Mrs. Woods had 
 sent a message, saying that in view of the 
 limited time that Mr. Hathaway would have 
 with his ward, Mrs. Woods would forego her 
 right to keep him at her side at dinner, and 
 yield her place to Yerba. Paul thanked him 
 
100 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 with a grave inward smile. What if he 
 made his dramatic disclosure to her confi 
 dentially over the soup and fish ? Yet, in 
 his constantly recurring conviction of the 
 girl s independence, he made no doubt she 
 would have met his brutality with uiifl inching 
 pride and self-possession. He began to dress 
 slowly, at times almost forgetting himself in 
 a new kind of pleasant apathy, which he 
 attributed to the odor of the flowers, and 
 the softer hush of twilight that had come 
 on with the dying away of the trade winds, 
 and the restful spice of the bay-trees near his 
 window. He presently found himself not 
 so much thinking of Yerba as of seeing her. 
 A picture of her in the summer-house caress 
 ing her cheek with the roses seemed to stand 
 out from the shadows of the blank wall oppo 
 site him. When he passed into the dressing- 
 room beyond, it was not his own face he saw 
 in the glass, but hers. It was with a start, 
 as if he had heard her voice, that he found 
 upon his dressing-table a small vase contain 
 ing a flower for his coat, with the penciled 
 words on a card in a school-girl s hand, 
 " From Yerba, with thanks for staying." It 
 must have been placed there by a servant 
 while he was musing at the window. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 101 
 
 Half a dozen people were already in the 
 drawing-room when Paul descended. It ap 
 peared that Mr. Woods had invited certain 
 of his neighbors among them a Judge 
 Baker and his wife, and Don Caesar Briones, 
 of the adjacent Rancho of Los Pajaros, and 
 his sister, the Dona Anna. Milly and Yerba 
 had not yet appeared. Don Ca3sar, a young 
 man of a toreador build, roundly bland in 
 face and murky in eye, seemed to notice 
 their absence, and kept his glances towards 
 the door, while Paul engaged in conversation 
 with Dona Anna if that word could con 
 vey an impression of a conventionality which 
 that good-humored young lady converted 
 into an animated flirtation at the second 
 sentence with a single glance and two shakes 
 of her fan. And then Milly fluttered in 
 a vision of school-girl freshness and white 
 tulle, and a moment later with a pause of 
 expectation a tall, graceful figure, that at 
 first Paul scarcely recognized. 
 
 It is a popular conceit of our sex that we 
 are superior to any effect of feminine adorn 
 ment, and that a pretty girl is equally pretty 
 in the simplest frock. Yet there was not a 
 man in the room who did not believe that 
 Yerba in her present attire was not only far 
 
102 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 prettier than before, but that she indicated 
 a new and more delicate form of beauty. It 
 was not the mere revelation of contour and 
 color of an ordinary decollete dress, it was a 
 perfect presentment of pure symmetry and 
 carriage. In this black grenadine dress, 
 trimmed with jet, not only was the delicate 
 satin sheen of her skin made clearer by con 
 trast, but she looked every inch her full 
 height, with an ideal exaltation of breeding 
 and culture. She wore no jewelry except a 
 small necklace of pearls so small it might 
 have been a child s that fitted her slender 
 throat so tightly that it could scarcely be 
 told from the flesh that it clasped. Paul 
 did not know that it was the gift of the 
 mother to the child that she had forsworn 
 only a few weeks before she parted from her 
 forever ; but he had a vague feeling that, in 
 that sable dress that seemed like mourning, 
 she walked at the funeral of her mother s 
 past. A few white flowers in her corsage, 
 the companions of the solitary one in his 
 button-hole, were the only relief. 
 
 Their eyes met for a single moment, the 
 look of admiration in Paul s being answered 
 by the naive consciousness in Yerba s of a 
 woman looking her best ; but the next mo- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 103 
 
 ment she appeared preoccupied with the 
 others, and the eager advances of Don 
 CaBsar. 
 
 " Your brother seems to admire Miss 
 Yerba," said Paul. 
 
 "Ah, ye es," returned Dona Anna. 
 "And you?" 
 
 " Oh ! " said Paul, gayly, " I? I am her 
 guardian with me it is simple egotism, 
 you know." 
 
 " Ah ! " returned the arch Dona Anna, 
 "you are then already so certain of her? 
 Good ! I shall warn him." 
 
 A precaution that did seem necessary ; as 
 later, when Paul, at a signal from his hostess, 
 offered his arm to Yerba. the young Span 
 iard regarded him with a look of startled 
 curiosity. 
 
 " I thank you for selecting me to wear 
 your colors," said Paul with a glance at the 
 flowers in her corsage, as they sat at table, 
 " and I think I deserve them, since, but for 
 you, I should have been on my way to San 
 Francisco at this moment. Shall I have 
 an opportunity of talking to you a few min 
 utes later in the evening ? " he added, in a 
 lower tone. 
 
 " Why not now ? " returned Yerba, mis- 
 
104 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 chievously. " We are set here expressly 
 for that purpose." 
 
 " Surely not to talk of our own business 
 I should say, of our family affairs," said 
 Paul, looking at her with equal playfulness ; 
 " though I believe your friend Don Ca3sar, 
 opposite, would be more pleased if he were 
 sure that was all we did." 
 
 " And you think his sister would share in 
 that pleasure ? " retorted Yerba. " I warn 
 you, Mr. Hathaway, that you have been 
 quite justifying the Reverend Mother s 
 doubts about your venerable pretensions. 
 Everybody is staring at you now." 
 
 Paul looked up mechanically. It was 
 true. Whether from some occult sympathy, 
 from a human tendency to admire obvious 
 fitness and symmetry, or the innocent love 
 with which the world regards innocent lovers, 
 they were all observing Yerba and himself 
 with undisguised attention. A good talker, 
 he quickly led the conversation to other 
 topics. It was then that he discovered that 
 Yerba was not only accomplished, but that 
 this convent-bred girl had acquired a singu 
 lar breadth of knowledge apart from the 
 ordinary routine of the school curriculum. 
 She spoke and thought with independent 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 105 
 
 perceptions and clearness, yet without the 
 tactlessness and masculine abruptness that 
 is apt to detract from feminine originality 
 of reflection. By some tacit understanding 
 that had the charm of mutual confidence, 
 they both exerted themselves to please the 
 company rather than each other, and Paul, 
 in the interchange of sallies with Dona 
 Anna, had a certain pleasure in hearing 
 Yerba converse in Spanish with Don Ca3sar. 
 But in a few moments he observed, with 
 some uneasiness, that they were talking of 
 the old Spanish occupation, and presently of 
 the old Spanish families. Would she pre 
 maturely expose an ignorance that might be 
 hereafter remembered against her, or invite 
 some dreadful genealogical reminiscence that 
 would destroy her hopes and raze her Span 
 ish castles? Or was she simply collecting 
 information ? He admired the dexterity 
 with which, without committing herself, she 
 made Don Caesar openly and even confiden 
 tially communicative. And yet he was on 
 thorns ; at times it seemed as if he himself 
 were playing a part in this imposture of 
 Yerba s. He was aware that his wandering 
 attention was noticed by the quick-witted 
 Dona Anna, when he regained his self-pos- 
 
106 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 session by what appeared to be a happy 
 diversion. It was the voice of Mrs. Judge 
 Baker calling across the table to Yerba. By 
 one of the peculiar accidents of general con 
 versation, it was the one apparently trivial 
 remark that in a pause challenged the ears 
 of all. 
 
 " We were admiring your necklace, Miss 
 Yerba." 
 
 Every eye was turned upon the slender 
 throat of the handsome girl. The excuse 
 was so natural. 
 
 Yerba put her hand to her neck with a 
 smile. u You are joking, Mrs. Baker. I 
 know it is ridiculously small, but it is a 
 child s necklace, and I wear it because it 
 was a gift from my mother." 
 
 Paul s heart sank again with consterna 
 tion. It was the first time he had heard the 
 girl distinctly connect herself with her actual 
 mother, and for an instant he felt as startled 
 as if the forgotten Outcast herself had re 
 turned and taken a seat at the board. 
 
 " I told you it could n t be so ? " remarked 
 Mrs. Baker, to her husband. 
 
 Everybody naturally looked inquiringly 
 upon the couple, and Mrs. Baker explained 
 with a smile : " Bob thinks he s seen it be 
 fore; men are so obstinate." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 107 
 
 " Pardon me, Miss Yerba," said the Judge, 
 blandly, " would you mind showing it to me, 
 if it is not too much trouble ? " 
 
 " Not at all," said Yerba, smiling, and de 
 taching the circlet from her neck. "I m 
 afraid you 11 find it rather old-fashioned." 
 
 " That s just what I hope to find it," said 
 Judge Baker, with a triumphant glance at 
 his wife. " It was eight years ago when I 
 saw it in Tucker s jewelry shop. I wanted 
 to buy it for my little Minnie, but as the 
 price was steep I hesitated, and when I did 
 make up my mind he had disposed of it to 
 another customer. Yes," he added, examin 
 ing the necklace which Yerba had handed to 
 him. " I am certain it is the same : it was 
 unique, like this. Odd, isn t it? " 
 
 Everybody said it was odd, and looked 
 upon the occurrence with that unreasoning 
 satisfaction with which average humanity 
 receives the most trivial and unmeaning co 
 incidences. It was left to Don Caesar to 
 give it a gallant application. 
 
 " I have not-a the pleasure of knowing-a 
 the Miss Minnie, but the jewelry, when she 
 arrives, to the throat-a of Miss Yerba, she 
 has not lost the value the beauty the 
 charm." 
 
108 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " No, 1 said Woods, cheerily. " The fact 
 is, Baker, you were too slow. Miss Yerba s 
 folks gobbled up the necklace while you were 
 thinking. You were a new-comer. Old 
 1 forty-niners did not hesitate over a thing 
 they wanted." 
 
 " You never knew who was your success 
 ful rival, eh ? " said Dona Anna, turning to 
 Judge Baker with a curious glance at Paul s 
 pale face in passing. 
 
 "No," said Baker, "but" he stopped 
 with a hesitating laugh and some little con 
 fusion. " No, I ve mixed it up with some 
 thing else. It s so long ago. I never 
 knew, or if I did I Ve forgotten. But the 
 necklace I remember." He handed it back 
 to Yerba with a bow, and the incident 
 ended. 
 
 Paul had not looked at Yerba during this 
 conversation, an unreasoning instinct that 
 he might confuse her, an equally unreason 
 ing dread that he might see her confused by 
 others, possessing him. And when he did 
 glance at her calm, untroubled face, that 
 seemed only a little surprised at his own 
 singular coldness, he was by no means re 
 lieved. He was only convinced of one thing. 
 In the last five minutes he had settled upon 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 109 
 
 the irrevocable determination that his pres 
 ent relations with the girl could exist no 
 longer. He must either tell her everything, 
 or see her no more. There was no middle 
 course. She was on the brink of an exposure 
 at any moment, either through her ignorance 
 or her unhappy pretension. In his intoler 
 able position, he was equally unable to con 
 template her peril, accept her defense, or 
 himself defend her. 
 
 As if, with some feminine instinct, she 
 had attributed his silence to some jealousy 
 of Don Caesar s attentions, she more than 
 once turned from the Spaniard to Paul with 
 an assuring smile. In his anxiety, he half 
 accepted the rather humiliating suggestion, 
 and managed to say to her, in a lower tone : 
 
 "On this last visit of your American 
 guardian, one would think, you need not 
 already anticipate your Spanish relations." 
 
 He was thrilled with the mischievous yet 
 faintly tender pleasure that sparkled in her 
 eyes as she said, 
 
 " You forget it is my American guardian s 
 first visit, as well as his last." 
 
 "And as your guardian," he went on, 
 with half -veiled seriousness, "I protest 
 against your allowing your treasures, the 
 
110 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 property of the Trust," he gazed directly into 
 her beautiful eyes, " being handled and com 
 mented upon by everybody." 
 
 When the ladies had left the table, he 
 was, for a moment, relieved. But only for 
 a moment. Judge Baker drew his chair 
 beside Paul s, and, taking his cigar from his 
 his lips, said, with a perfunctory laugh : 
 
 "I say, Hathaway, I pulled up just in 
 time to save myself from making an awful 
 speech, just now, to your ward." 
 
 Paul looked at him with cold curiosity. 
 
 " Yes. Gad ! Do you know who was my 
 rival in that necklace transaction ? " 
 
 " No," said Paul, with frigid carelessness. 
 
 "Why, Kate Howard! Fact, sir. She 
 bought it right under rny nose and over 
 bid me, too." 
 
 Paul did not lose his self-possession. 
 Thanks to the fact that Yerba was not pres 
 ent, and that Don Caesar, who had overheard 
 the speech, moved forward with a suggestive 
 and unpleasant smile, his agitation congealed 
 into a coldly placid fury. 
 
 " And I suppose," he returned, with per 
 fect calmness, " that, after the usual habit of 
 this class of women, the necklace very soon 
 found its way back, through the pawnbroker, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. HI 
 
 to the jeweler again. It s a common 
 fate." 
 
 "Yes, of course," said Judge Baker, 
 cheerfully. " You re quite right. That s 
 undoubtedly the solution of it. But," with 
 a laugh, " I had a narrow escape from say 
 ing something eh? " 
 
 "A very narrow escape from an appar 
 ently gratuitous insult," said Paul, gravely, 
 but fixing his eyes, now more luminous than 
 ever with anger, not on the speaker, but on 
 the face of Don Caesar, who was standing at 
 his side. "You were about to say," 
 
 "Eh oh ah! this Kate Howard? 
 So ! I have heard of her yees ! And 
 Miss Yerba ah she is of my country 
 I think. Yes we shall claim her of 
 a truth yes." 
 
 " Your countrymen, I believe, are in the 
 habit of making claims that are more often 
 founded on profit than verity," said Paul, 
 with smileless and insulting deliberation. 
 He knew perfectly what he was saying, and 
 the result he expected. Only twenty-four 
 hours before he had smiled at Pendleton s 
 idea of averting scandal and discovery by 
 fighting, yet he was endeavoring to pick a 
 quarrel with a man, merely on suspicion, for 
 
112 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the same purpose, and he saw nothing strange 
 in it. A vague idea, too, that this would 
 irrevocably confirm him in opposition to 
 Yerba s illusions probably determined him. 
 
 But Don Caesar, albeit smiling lividly, 
 did not seem inclined to pick up the gaunt 
 let, and Woods interfered hastily. " Don 
 Ca3sar means that your ward has some idea 
 herself that she is of Spanish origin at 
 least, Milly says so. But of course, as one 
 of the oldest trustees, you know the facts." 
 
 In another moment Paul would have com 
 mitted himself. " I think we 11 leave Miss 
 Yerba out of the question," he said, coldly. 
 " My remark was a general one, although, 
 of course, I am responsible for any personal 
 application of it." 
 
 "Spoken like a politician, Hathaway," 
 said Judge Baker, with an effusive enthu 
 siasm, which he hoped would atone for the 
 alarming results of his infelicitous speech. 
 " That s right, gentlemen ! You can t get 
 the facts from him before he is ready to give 
 them. Keep your secret, Mr. Hathaway, 
 the court is with you." 
 
 Nevertheless, as they passed out of the 
 room to join the ladies, the Mayor lingered 
 a little behind with Woods. " It s easy to 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 113 
 
 see the influence of that Peiidleton on our 
 young friend," he said, significantly. * Some 
 body ought to tell him that it s played out 
 down here as Pendleton is. It s quite 
 enough to ruin his career." 
 
 Paul was too observant not to notice this, 
 but it brought him no sense of remorse ; and 
 his youthful belief in himself and his power 
 kept him from concern. He felt as if he 
 had done something, if only to show Don 
 Caesar that the girl s weakness or ignorance 
 could not be traded upon with impunity. 
 But he was still undecided as to the course 
 he should pursue. But he should determine 
 that to-night. At present there seemed no 
 chance of talking to her alone she was 
 unconcernedly conversing with Milly and 
 Mrs. Woods, and already the visitors who 
 had been invited to this hurried levee in his 
 honor were arriving. In view of his late 
 indiscretion, he nervously exerted his fullest 
 powers, and in a very few minutes was sur 
 rounded by a breathless and admiring group 
 of worshipers. A ludicrous resemblance to 
 the scene in the Golden Gate Hotel passed 
 through his mind ; he involuntarily turned 
 his eyes to seek Yerba in the half-fear, half- 
 expectation of meeting her mischievous smile. 
 
114 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Their glances met ; to his surprise hers was 
 smileless, and instantly withdrawn, but not 
 until he had been thrilled by an unconscious 
 prepossession in its luminous depths that he 
 scarcely dared to dwell upon. What mat 
 tered now this passage with Don Caesar or 
 the plaudits of his friends ? She was proud 
 of him ! 
 
 Yet, after that glance, she was shy, pre 
 occupying herself with Milly, or even listen 
 ing sweetly to Judge Baker s somewhat 
 practical and unromantic reminiscences of 
 the deprivations and the hardships of Cali 
 fornia early days, as if to condone his past 
 infelicity. She was pleasantly unaffected 
 with Don Ca3sar, although she managed to 
 draw Dona Anna into the conversation ; she 
 was unconventional, Paul fancied, to all but 
 himself. Once or twice, when he had art 
 fully drawn her towards the open French 
 window that led to the moonlit garden and 
 shadowed veranda, she had managed to link 
 Milly s arm in her own, and he was confi 
 dent that a suggestion to stroll with him in 
 the open air would be followed by her invi 
 tation to Milly to accompany them. Disap 
 pointed and mortified as he was, he found 
 some solace in her manner, \\hich he still 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 115 
 
 believed suggested the hope that she might 
 be made accessible to his persuasions. Per 
 suasions to what ? He did not know. 
 
 The last guest had departed ; he lingered 
 on the veranda with a cigar, begging his 
 host and hostess not to trouble themselves to 
 keep him company. Milly and Yerba had 
 retired to the former s boudoir, but, as they 
 had not yet formally bade him good night, 
 there was a chance of their returning. He 
 still stayed on in this hope for half an hour, 
 and then, accepting Yerba s continued ab 
 sence as a tacit refusal of his request, he 
 turned abruptly away. But as he glanced 
 around the garden before reentering the 
 house, he was struck by a singular circum 
 stance a white patch, like a forgotten 
 shawl, which he had observed on the distant 
 ceanothus hedge, and which had at first 
 thrilled him with expectation, had certainly 
 changed its position. Before, it seemed to 
 be near the summer-house ; now it was, un 
 doubtedly, farther away. Could they, or 
 she alone, have slipped from the house and 
 be awaiting him there? AVith a muttered 
 exclamation at his stupidity he stepped has 
 tily from the veranda and walked towards it. 
 But he had scarcely proceeded a dozen yards 
 
116 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 before it disappeared. He reached the sum 
 mer-house it was empty ; he followed the 
 line of hedge no one was there. It could 
 not have been her, or she would have waited, 
 unless he were the victim of a practical joke. 
 He turned impatiently back to the house, 
 reentered the drawing-room by the French 
 window, and was crossing the half-lit apart 
 ment, when he heard a slight rustle in the 
 shadow of the window. He looked around 
 quickly, and saw that it was Yerba, in a 
 white, loose gown, for which she had already 
 exchanged her black evening dress, leaning 
 back composedly on the sofa, her hands 
 clasped behind her shapely head. 
 
 " I am waiting for Milly," she said, with 
 a faint smile on her lips. He fancied, in 
 the moonlight that streamed upon her, that 
 her beautiful face was pale. " She has gone 
 to the other wing to see one of the servants 
 who is ill. We thought you were on the 
 veranda smoking and I should have com 
 pany, until I saw you start off, and rush up 
 and down the hedge like mad." 
 
 Paul felt that he was losing his self-pos 
 session, and becoming nervous in her pres 
 ence. " I thought it was you" he stammered. 
 
 " Me ! Out in the garden at this hour, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 117 
 
 alone, and in the broad moonlight ? What 
 are you thinking of, Mr. Hathaway ? Do 
 you know anything of convent rules, or is 
 that your idea of your ward s education ? " 
 
 He fancied that, though she smiled faintly, 
 her voice was as tremulous as his own. 
 
 " I want to speak with you," he said, with 
 awkward directness. " I even thought of 
 asking you to stroll with me in the garden." 
 
 u Why not talk here ? " she returned, 
 changing her position, pointing to the other 
 end of the sofa, and drawing the whole over 
 flow of her skirt to one side. " It is not so 
 very late, and Milly will return in a few mo 
 ments." 
 
 Her face was in shadow now, but there 
 was a glow-worm light in her beautiful eyes 
 that seemed faintly to illuminate her whole 
 face. He sank down on the sofa at her side, 
 no longer the brilliant and ambitious poli 
 tician, but, it seemed to him, as hopelessly a 
 dreaming, inexperienced boy as when he had 
 given her the name that now was all he 
 could think of, and the only word that rose 
 to his feverish lips. 
 
 " Yerba ! " 
 
 "I like to hear you say it," she said 
 quickly, as if to gloss over his first omission 
 
118 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 of her formal prefix, and leaning a little for 
 ward, with her eyes on his. "One would 
 think you had created it. You almost make 
 me regret to lose it." 
 
 He stopped. He felt that the last sen 
 tence had saved him. " It is of that I want 
 to speak," he broke out suddenly and almost 
 rudely. " Are you satisfied that it means 
 nothing, and can mean nothing, to you ? 
 Does it awaken no memory in your mind 
 recall nothing you care to know ? Think ! 
 I beg you, I implore you to be frank with 
 me!" 
 
 She looked at him with surprise. 
 
 " I have told you already that my present 
 name must be some absurd blunder, or some 
 intentional concealment. But why do you 
 want to know now ? " she continued, adding 
 her faint smile to the emphasis. 
 
 " To help you ! " he said, eagerly. " For 
 that alone ! To do all I can to assist you, 
 if you really believe, and want to believe, 
 that you have another. To ask you to con 
 fide in me ; to tell me all you have been told, 
 all that you know, think you know, or want to 
 know about your relationship to the Arguel- 
 los or to any one. And then to devote 
 myself entirely to proving what you shall 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE 119 
 
 say is your desire. You see, I am frank 
 with you, Yerba. I only ask you to be as 
 frank with me ; to let me know your doubts, 
 that I may counsel you ; your fears, that I 
 may give you courage." 
 
 " Is that all you came here to tell me ? " 
 she asked quietly. 
 
 "No, Yerba," he said, eagerly, taking her 
 unresisting but indifferent hand, " not all ; 
 but all that I must say, all that I have the 
 right to say, all that you, Yerba, would per 
 mit me to tell you now. But let me hope 
 that the day is not far distant when I can 
 tell you all, when you will understand that 
 this silence has been the hardest sacrifice of 
 the man who now speaks to you." 
 
 " And yet not unworthy of a rising poli 
 tician," she added, quickly withdrawing her 
 hand. " I agree," she went on, looking to 
 wards the door, yet without appearing to 
 avoid his eager eyes, " and when I have set 
 tled upon a local habitation and a name 
 we shall renew this interesting conversation. 
 Until then, as my fourth official guardian 
 used to say -he was a lawyer, Mr. Hath 
 away, like yourself when he was winding 
 up his conjectures on the subject all that 
 has passed is to be considered without pre 
 judice. " 
 
120 A WARD OF TII GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " But Yerba " began Paul, bitterly. 
 
 She slightly raised her hand as if to check 
 him with a warning gesture. " Yes, dear," 
 she said suddenly, lifting her musical voice, 
 with a mischievous side-glance at Paul, as if 
 to indicate her conception of the irony of a 
 possible application, " this way. Here we 
 are waiting for you." Her listening ear 
 had detected Milly s step in the passage, and 
 in another moment that cheerful young wo 
 man discreetly stopped on the threshold of 
 the room, with every expression of apologetic 
 indiscretion in her face. 
 
 " We have finished our talk, and Mr. 
 Hathaway has been so concerned about my 
 having no real name that he has been prom 
 ising me everything, but his own, for a suit 
 able one. Have n t you, Mr. Hathaway ? " 
 She rose slowly and, going over to Milly, 
 put her arm around her waist and stood for 
 one instant gazing at him between the cur 
 tains of the doorway. " Good night. My 
 very proper chaperon is dreadfully shocked 
 at this midnight interview, and is taking me 
 away. Only think of it, Milly ; he actually 
 proposed to me to walk in the garden with 
 him ! Good night, or, as my ancestors 
 don t forget, my ancestors used to say : 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 121 
 
 4 Buena noche hasta manana ! She 
 lingered over the Spanish syllables with an 
 imitation of Dona Anna s lisp, and with an 
 other smile, but more faint and more ghost 
 like than before, vanished with her com 
 panion. 
 
 At eight o clock the next morning Paul 
 was standing beside his portmanteau on the 
 veranda. 
 
 " But this is a sudden resolution of yours, 
 Hathaway," said Mr. Woods. " Can you 
 not possibly wait for the next train ? The 
 girls will be down then, and you can break 
 fast comfortably." 
 
 " I have much to do more than I im 
 agined in San Francisco before I return," 
 said Paul, quickly. " You must make my 
 excuses to them and to your wife." 
 
 " I hope," said Woods, with an uneasy 
 laugh, " you have had no more words with 
 Don Caesar, or he with you ? " 
 
 " No," said Paul, with a reassuring smile, 
 " nothing more, I assure you." 
 
 " For you know you re a devilish quick 
 fellow, Hathaway," continued Woods, " quite 
 as quick as your friend Pendleton. And, 
 by the way, Baker is awfully cut up about 
 that absurd speech of his, you know. Came 
 
122 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to me last night and wondered if anybody 
 could think it was intentional. I told him 
 it was d d stupid, that was all. I guess 
 his wife had been at him. Ha ! ha ! You 
 see, he remembers the old times, when every 
 body talked of these things, and that woman 
 Howard was quite a character. I m told 
 she went off to the States years ago." 
 
 " Possibly," said Paul, carelessly. After 
 a pause, as the carriage drove up to the 
 door, he turned to his host. " By the way, 
 Woods, have you a ghost here ? " 
 
 " The house is old enough for one. But 
 no. Why?" 
 
 " I 11 swear I saw a figure moving yonder, 
 in the shrubbery, late last evening ; and 
 when I came up to it, it most unaccountably 
 disappeared." 
 
 " One of Don Caesar s servants, I dare 
 say. There is one of them, an Indian, 
 prowling about here, I ve been told, at all 
 hours. I ll put a stop to it. Well, you 
 must go then ? Dreadfully sorry you 
 could n t stop longer ! Good-by ! " 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IT was two months later that Mr. Tony 
 Shear, of Marysville, but lately confidential 
 clerk to the Hon. Paul Hathaway, entered 
 his employer s chambers in Sacramento, and 
 handed the latter a letter. 
 
 " I only got back from San Francisco this 
 morning ; but Mr. Slate said I was to give 
 you that, and if it satisfied you, and was 
 what you wanted, you would send it back to 
 him." 
 
 Paul took the envelope and opened it. It 
 contained a printer s proof -slip, which he 
 hurriedly glanced over. It read as follows : 
 "Those of our readers who are familiar 
 with the early history of San Francisco will 
 be interested to know that an eccentric and 
 irregular trusteeship, vested for the last 
 eight years in the Mayor of San Francisco 
 and two of our oldest citizens, was termi 
 nated yesterday by the majority of a beauti 
 ful and accomplished young lady, a pupil of 
 the convent of Santa Clara. Very few, ex- 
 
124 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 cept the original trustees, were cognizant of 
 the fact that the administration of the 
 trustees has been a recognized function of 
 the successive Mayors of San Francisco dur 
 ing this period ; and the mystery surround 
 ing it has been only lately divulged. It 
 offers a touching and romantic instance of a 
 survival of the old patriarchal duties of the 
 former Alcaldes and the simplicity of pioneer 
 days. It seems that, in the unsettled condi 
 tions of the Mexican land-titles that followed 
 the American occupation, the consumptive 
 widow of a scion of one of the oldest Cali- 
 fornian families intrusted her property and 
 the custody of her infant daughter virtually 
 to the city of San Francisco, as represented 
 by the trustees specified, until the girl should 
 become of age. Within a year, the invalid 
 mother died. With what loyalty, sagacity, 
 and prudence these gentlemen fulfilled their 
 trust may be gathered from the fact that the 
 property left in their charge has not only 
 been secured and protected, but increased a 
 hundredfold in value ; and that the young- 
 lady, who yesterday attained her majority, is 
 not only one of the richest landed heiresses 
 on the Pacific Slope, but one of the most 
 accomplished and thoroughly educated of 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 125 
 
 her sex. It is now no secret that this favored 
 child of Chrysopolis is the Dona Maria Con- 
 cepcion de Arguello de la Yerba Buena, so 
 called from her ancestral property on the 
 island, now owned by the Federal govern 
 ment. But it is an affecting and poetic trib 
 ute to the parent of her adoption that she 
 has preferred to pass under the old, quaintly 
 typical name of the city, and has been known 
 to her friends simply as Miss Yerba 
 Buena. It is a no less pleasant and sug 
 gestive circumstance that our youngest 
 senator/ the Honorable Paul Hathaway, 
 formerly private secretary to Mayor Ham- 
 mersley, is one of the original unofficial 
 trustees; while the chivalry of the older 
 days is perpetuated in the person of Colonel 
 Harry Pendleton, the remaining trustee." 
 
 As soon as he had finished, Paul took a 
 pencil and crossed out the last sentence ; but 
 instead of laying the proof aside, or return 
 ing it to the waiting secretary, he remained 
 with it in his hand, his silent, set face turned 
 towards the window. Whether the merely 
 human secretary was tired of waiting, or the 
 devoted partisan saw something on his young 
 chief s face that disturbed him, he turned to 
 Paul with that exaggerated respect which his 
 
126 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 functions as secretary had grafted upon his 
 affection for his old associate, and said : 
 
 " I hope nothing s wrong, sir. Not an 
 other of those scurrilous attacks on you for 
 putting that bill through to relieve Colonel 
 Pendleton ? Yet it was a risky thing for 
 you, sir." 
 
 Paul started, recovered himself as if from 
 some remote abstraction, and, with a smile, 
 said : " No, nothing. Quite the reverse. 
 Write to Mr. Slate, thank him, and say that 
 it will do very well with the exception of 
 the lines I have marked out. Then bring 
 me the letter, and I will add this inclosure. 
 Did you call on Colonel Pendleton ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir. Pie was at Santa Clara, and 
 had not yet returned, at least, that s what 
 that dandy nigger of his told me. The airs 
 and graces that that creature puts on since 
 the colonel s affairs have been straightened 
 out is a little too much for a white man to 
 stand. Why, sir ! d d if he did n t want 
 to patronize you, and allowed to me that 
 de Kernel had a 4 fah ideah of you, and 
 thought you a promisin young man. The 
 fact is, sir, the party is making a big mistake 
 trying to give votes to that kind of cattle 
 it would only be giving two votes to the 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 127 
 
 other side, for, slave or free, they re the 
 chattels of their old masters. And as to the 
 masters gratitude for what you ve done af 
 fecting a single vote of their party you re 
 mistaken." 
 
 " Colonel Pendleton belongs to no party," 
 said Paul, curtly ; * but if his old con 
 stituents ever try to get into power again, 
 they ve lost their only independent martyr." 
 
 He presently became abstracted again, 
 and Shear produced from his overcoat pocket 
 a series of official-looking documents. 
 
 " I ve brought the reports, sir." 
 
 " Eh ? " said Paul, absently. 
 
 The secretary stared. "The reports of 
 the San Francisco Chief of Police that you 
 asked me to get." His employer was cer 
 tainly very forgetful to-day. 
 
 "Oh, yes ; thank you. You can lay them 
 on my desk. I 11 look them over in Com 
 mittee. You can go now, and if any one 
 calls to see me say I m busy." 
 
 The secretary disappeared in the adjoining 
 room, and Paul leaned back in his chair, 
 thinking. He had, at last, effected the work 
 he had resolved upon when he left Rosario 
 two months ago; the article he had just 
 read, and which would appear as an editorial 
 
128 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 in the San Francisco paper the day after to 
 morrow, was the culmination of quietly per 
 sistent labor, inquiry, and deduction, and 
 would be accepted, hereafter, as authentic 
 history, which, if not thoroughly established, 
 at least could not be gainsaid. Immediately 
 on arriving at San Francisco, he had has 
 tened to Pendleton s bedside, and laid the 
 facts and his plan before him. To his min 
 gled astonishment and chagrin, the colonel 
 had objected vehemently to this "saddling 
 of anybody s offspring on a gentleman who 
 could n t defend himself, and even Paul s 
 explanation that the putative father was a 
 myth scarcely appeased him. But Paul s 
 timely demonstration, by relating the scene 
 he had witnessed of J udge Baker s infelici 
 tous memory, that the secret was likely to be 
 revealed at any moment, and that if the girl 
 continued to cling to her theory, as he feared 
 she would, even to the parting with her for 
 tune, they would be forced to accept it, or 
 be placed in the hideous position of publish 
 ing her disgrace, at last convinced him. On 
 the other hand, there was less danger of her 
 positive imposition being discovered than of 
 the vague and impositive truth. The real 
 danger lay in the present uncertainty and 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 129 
 
 mystery, which courted surmise and invited 
 discovery. Paul, himself, was willing to 
 take all the responsibility, and at last ex 
 tracted from the colonel a promise of pas 
 sive assent. The only revelation he feared 
 was from the interference of the mother, but 
 Pendleton was strong in the belief that she 
 had not only utterly abandoned the girl to 
 the care of her guardians, but that she would 
 never rescind her resolution to disclaim her 
 relationship; that she had gone into self- 
 exile for that purpose ; and that if she had 
 changed her mind, he would be the first to 
 know of it. On this day they had parted. 
 Meantime, Paul had not forgotten another 
 resolution he had formed on his first visit lo 
 the colonel, and had actually succeeded in 
 getting legislative relief for the Golden Gate 
 Bank, and restoring to the colonel some of 
 his private property that had been in the 
 hands of a receiver. 
 
 This had been the background of Paul s 
 meditation, which only threw into stronger 
 relief the face and figure that moved before 
 him as persistently as it had once before in 
 the twilight of his room at Rosario. There 
 were times when her moonlit face, with its 
 faint, strange smile, stood out before him as 
 
130 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 it had stood out of the shadows of the half- 
 darkened drawing-rooom that night ; as he 
 had seen it he believed for the last time 
 framed for an instant in the parted curtains 
 of the doorway, when she bade him " Good 
 night." For he had never visited her since, 
 and, on the attainment of her majority, had 
 delegated his passing functions to Pendle- 
 ton, whom he had induced to accompany the 
 Mayor to Santa Clara for the final and for 
 mal ceremony. For the present she need not 
 know how much she had been indebted to 
 him for the accomplishment of her wishes. 
 
 With a sigh he at last recalled himself to 
 his duty, and, drawing the pile of reports 
 which Shear had handed him, he began to 
 examine them. These, again, bore reference 
 to his silent, unobtrusive inquiries. In his 
 function as Chairman of Committee he had 
 taken advantage of a kind of advanced moral 
 legislation then in vogue, and particularly in 
 reference to a certain social reform, to ex 
 amine statistics, authorities, and witnesses, 
 and in this indirect but exhaustive manner 
 had satisfied himself that the woman " Kate 
 Howard," alias "Beverly," alias " Durfree," 
 had long passed beyond the ken of local po 
 lice supervision, and that in the record there 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 131 
 
 was no trace or indication of her child. He 
 was going over those infelix records of early 
 transgressions with the eye of trained expe 
 rience, making notes from time to time for 
 his official use, and yet always watchful of 
 his secret quest, when suddenly he stopped 
 with a quickened pulse. In the record of 
 an affray at a gambling-house, one of the 
 parties had sought refuge in the rooms of 
 44 Kate Howard," who was represented be 
 fore the magistrate by her protector, Juan 
 de Arguello. The date given was contem 
 porary with the beginning of the Trust, but 
 that proved nothing. But the name had 
 it any significance, or was it a grim coinci 
 dence, that spoke even more terribly and 
 hopelessly of the woman s promiscuous 
 frailty? He again attacked the entire re 
 port, but there was no other record of her 
 name. Even that would have passed any 
 eye less eager and watchful than his own. 
 
 He laid the reports aside, and took up the 
 proof-slip again. Was there any man living 
 but himself and Pendleton who would con 
 nect these two statements ? That her rela 
 tions with this Arguello were brief and not 
 generally known was evident from Pendle- 
 ton s ignorance of the fact. But he must 
 
132 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 see him again, and at once. Perhaps he 
 might have acquired some information from 
 Yerba ; the young girl might have given to 
 his age that confidence she had withheld 
 from the younger man ; indeed, he remem 
 bered with a flush it was partly in that hope 
 he had induced the colonel to go to Santa 
 Clara. He put the proof-slip in his pocket 
 and stepped to the door of the next room. 
 
 " You need not write that letter to Slate, 
 Tony. I will see him myself. I am going 
 to San Francisco to-night." 
 
 " And do you want anything copied from 
 the reports, sir ? " 
 
 Paul quickly swept them from the table 
 into his drawer, and locked it. " Not now, 
 thank you. I 11 finish my notes later." 
 
 The next morning Paul was in San Fran 
 cisco, and had again crossed the portals 
 of the Golden Gate Hotel. He had been 
 already told that the doom of that palatial 
 edifice was sealed by the laying of the corner 
 stone of a new erection in the next square 
 that should utterly eclipse it ; he even fan 
 cied that it had already lost its freshness, and 
 its meretricious glitter had been tarnished. 
 But when he had ordered his breakfast he 
 made his way to the public parlor, happily 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 133 
 
 deserted at that early hour. It was here 
 that he had first seen her. She was stand 
 ing there, by that mirror, when their eyes 
 first met in a sudden instinctive sympathy. 
 She herself had remembered and confessed 
 it. He recalled the pleased yet conscious, 
 girlish superiority with which she had re 
 ceived the adulation of her friends ; his 
 memory of her was broad enough now even 
 to identify Milly, as it repeopled the vacant 
 and silent room. 
 
 An hour later he was making his way to 
 Colonel Pendleton s lodgings, and half ex 
 pecting to find the St. Charles Hotel itself 
 transformed by the eager spirit of improve 
 ment. But it was still there in all its bar 
 baric and provincial incongruity. Public 
 opinion had evidently recognized that noth 
 ing save the absolute razing of its warped 
 and flimsy walls could effect a change, and 
 waited for it to collapse suddenly like the 
 house of cards it resembled. Paul wondered 
 for a moment if it were not ominous of its 
 lodgers hopeless inability to accept changed 
 conditions, and it was with a feeling of 
 doubt that he even now ascended the creak 
 ing staircase. But it was instantly dissipated 
 on the threshold of the colonel s sitting-room 
 
134 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 by the appearance of George and his recep 
 tion of his master s guest. 
 
 The grizzled negro was arrayed in a sur 
 prisingly new suit of blue cloth with a por 
 tentous white waistcoat and an enormous 
 crumpled white cravat, that gave him the 
 appearance of suffering from a glandular 
 swelling. His manner had, it seemed to 
 Paul, advanced in exaggeration with his 
 clothes. Dusting a chair and offering it to 
 the visitor, he remained gracefully posed with 
 his hand on the back of another. 
 
 " Yo finds us heah yet, Marse Hathaway," 
 he began, elegantly toying with an enormous 
 silver watch-chain, "fo* de Kernel he don* 
 bin find contagious apartments dat at all 
 approximate, and he don build, for his 
 mind s not dat settled dat he ain t goin* to 
 trabbel. De place is low down, sah, and de 
 f o ks is low down, and dah s a heap o* white 
 trash dat has congested under de roof ob de 
 hotel since we came. But we uses it tem- 
 per ly, sah, fo de present, and in a dissolu- 
 tory fashion." 
 
 It struck Paul that the contiguity of a 
 certain barber s shop and its dangerous rem 
 iniscences had something to do with George s 
 lofty depreciation of his surroundings, and 
 he could not help saying : 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 135 
 
 " Then you don t find it necessary to have 
 it convenient to the barber s shop any more? 
 I am glad of that, George." 
 
 The shot told. The unfortunate George, 
 after an endeavor to collect himself by alter 
 ing his pose two or three times in rapid suc 
 cession, finally collapsed, and, with an air of 
 mingled pain and dignity, but without losing 
 his ceremonious politeness or unique vocab 
 ulary, said : 
 
 " Yo got me dah, sah ! Yo got me dah ! 
 De infirmities o human natcheh, sah, is de 
 common p operty ob man, and a gemplum 
 like yo self, sah, a legislate and a pow ful 
 speakah, is de lass one to hoi it agin de in- 
 dividal pusson. I confess, sah, de circum 
 stances was propiskuous, de fees fahly good, 
 and de risks inferior. De gemplum who 
 kept de shop was an artess hisself, and had 
 been niggah to Kernel Henderson of Tennes 
 see, and de gemplum I relieved was a Mr. 
 Johnson. But de Kernel, he wouldn t see 
 it in dat light, sah, and if yo don mind, 
 sah" 
 
 " I have n t the slightest idea of telling the 
 colonel or anybody, George," said Paul, 
 smiling ; " and I am glad to find on your 
 own account that you are able to put aside 
 any work beyond your duty here." 
 
136 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " Thank yo , sah. If yo 11 let me intro 
 duce yo to de refreshment, yo 11 find it all 
 1-io-ht now. De Glencoe is dah. De Kernel 
 
 O 
 
 will be here soon, but he would be pow ful 
 mo tified, sah, if yo did n t hab something 
 afo he come." He opened a well-filled side 
 board as he spoke. It was the first evidence 
 Paul had seen of the colonel s restored for 
 tunes. He would willingly have contented 
 himself with this mere outward manifesta 
 tion, but in his desire to soothe the ruffled 
 dignity of the old man he consented to par 
 take of a small glass of spirits. George at 
 once became radiant and communicative. 
 " De Kernel bin gone to Santa Clara to see 
 de young lady dat s finished her edercation 
 dah de Kernel s only ward, sah. She s 
 one o dose million-heiresses and highly con 
 nected, sah, wid de old Mexican Gobbermen, 
 I understand. And I reckon dey s bin big 
 goin s on doun dar, foh de Mayer kem his- 
 self fo de Kernel. Looks like des might 
 bin a proceshon, sah. Yo don know of a 
 young lady bin hab a title, sah ? I won t 
 be shuah, his Honah de Mayer or de Kernel 
 did n t say someting about a Donna. " 
 
 " Very likely, " said Paul, turning away 
 with a faint smile. So it was already in the 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 137 
 
 air! Setting aside the old negro s charac 
 teristic exaggeration, there had already been 
 some conversation between the colonel and 
 the Mayor, which George had vaguely over 
 heard. He might be too late, the alternative 
 might be no longer in his hands. But his 
 discomposure was heightened a moment later 
 by the actual apparition of the returning 
 Pendleton. 
 
 He was dressed in a tightly buttoned blue 
 frock-coat, which fairly accented his tall, thin 
 military figure, although the top lappel was 
 thrown far enough back to show a fine ruffled 
 cambric shirt and checked gingham necktie, 
 and was itself adorned with a white rosebud 
 in the button -hole. Fawn -colored trousers 
 strapped over narrow patent-leather boots, 
 and a tall white hat, whose broad mourning- 
 band was a perpetual memory of his mother, 
 who had died in his boyhood, completed his 
 festal transformation. Yet his erect carriage, 
 high aquiline nose, and long gray drooping 
 moustache lent a distinguishing grace to this 
 survival of a bygone fashion, and over-rode 
 any irreverent comment. Even his slight 
 limp seemed to give a peculiar character to 
 his massive gold-headed stick, and made it a 
 part of his formal elegance. 
 
138 A WARD OF TEE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Handing George his stick and a military 
 cape he carried easily over his left arm, he 
 greeted Paul warmly, yet with a return of 
 his old dominant manner. 
 
 " Glad to see you, Hathaway, and glad, to 
 see the boy has served you better than the 
 last time. If I had known you were coming, 
 I would have tried to get back in time to 
 have breakfast with you. But your friends 
 at Rosario I think they call it ; in my 
 time it was owned by Colonel Briones, and 
 he called it The Devil s Little Canon 
 detained me with some d d civilities. Let s 
 see his name is Woods, is n t it ? Used to 
 sell rum to runaway sailors on Long Wharf, 
 and take stores in exchange? Or was it 
 Baker? Judge Baker? I forget which. 
 Well, sir, they wished to be remembered." 
 
 It struck Paul, perhaps unreasonably, 
 that the colonel s indifference and digression 
 were both a little assumed, and he asked 
 abruptly, 
 
 " And you fulfilled your mission ? " 
 
 " I made the formal transfer, with the 
 Mayor, of the property to Miss Arguello." 
 
 " To Miss Arguello" ? " 
 
 " To the Dona Maria Concepcion de Ar 
 guello de la Yerba Buena to speak pre- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 139 
 
 cisely, " said the colonel, slowly. " George, 
 you can take that hat to that blank hatter 
 what s his blanked name? I read it only 
 yesterday in a list of the prominent citizens 
 here and tell him, with my compliments, 
 that I want a gentleman s mourning band 
 around my hat, and not a child s shoelace. 
 It may be his idea of the value of his own 
 parents if he ever had any but I don t 
 care for him to appraise mine. Go ! " 
 
 As the door closed upon George, Paul 
 turned to the colonel 
 
 " Then am I to understand that you have 
 agreed to her story ? " 
 
 The colonel rose, picked up the decanter, 
 poured out a glass of whiskey, and holding it 
 in his hand, said : 
 
 " My dear Hathaway, let us understand 
 each other. As a gentleman, I have made a 
 point through life never to question the age, 
 name, or family of any lady of my acquaint 
 ance. Miss Yerba Buena came of age yes 
 terday, and, as she is no longer my ward, 
 she is certainly entitled to the consideration 
 I have just mentioned. If she, therefore, 
 chooses to tack to her name the whole Span 
 ish directory, I don t see why I should n t 
 accept it." 
 
140 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 Characteristic as this speech appeared to 
 be of the colonel s ordinary manner, it 
 struck Paul as being only an imitation of his 
 usual frank independence, and made him 
 uneasily conscious of some vague desertion 
 on Pendleton s part. He fixed his bright 
 eyes on his host, who was ostentatiously sip 
 ping his liquor, and said : 
 
 " Am I to understand that you have heard 
 nothing more from Miss Yerba, either for or 
 against her story? That you still do not 
 know whether she has deceived herself, has 
 been deceived by others, or is deceiving us?" 
 
 "After what I have just told you, Mr. 
 Hathaway," said the colonel, with an in 
 creased exaggeration of manner which Paul 
 thought must be apparent even to himself, 
 " I should have but one way of dealing with 
 questions of that kind from anybody but 
 yourself." 
 
 This culminating extravagance taken in 
 connection with Pendleton s passing doubts 
 actually forced a laugh from Paul in spite 
 of his bitterness. 
 
 Colonel Pendleton s face flushed quickly. 
 Like most positive one-idea d men, he was 
 restricted from any possible humorous com 
 bination, and only felt a mysterious sense of 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 141 
 
 being detected in some weakness. He put 
 down his glass. 
 
 " Mr. Hathaway," he began, with a slight 
 vibration in his usual dominant accents, " you 
 have lately put me under a sense of personal 
 obligation for a favor which I felt I could 
 accept without derogation from a younger 
 man, because it seemed to be one not only of 
 youthful generosity but of justice, and was 
 not unworthy the exalted ambition of a young 
 man like yourself or the simple deserts of an 
 old man such as I am. I accepted it, sir, 
 the more readily, because it was entirely un 
 solicited by me, and seemed to be the spon 
 taneous offering of your own heart. If I 
 have presumed upon it to express myself 
 freely on other matters in a way that only 
 excites your ridicule, I can but offer you an 
 apology, sir. If I have accepted a favor I 
 can neither renounce nor return, I must take 
 the consequences to myself, and even beg 
 you, sir, to put up with them." 
 
 Kemorseful as Paul felt, there was a sin 
 gular resemblance between the previous re 
 proachful pose of George and this present 
 attitude of his master, as if the mere propin 
 quity of personal sacrifice had made them 
 alike, that struck him with a mingled pathos 
 
142 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 and ludicrousness. But he said warmly, 
 " It is I who must apologize, my dear colo 
 nel. I am not laughing at your conclusions, 
 but at this singular coincidence with a dis 
 covery I have made. * 
 
 " As how, sir ? " 
 
 " I find in the report of the Chief of the 
 Police for the year 1850 that Kate Howard 
 was under the protection of a man named 
 Arguello." 
 
 The colonel s exaggeration instantly left 
 him. He stared blankly at Paul. "And 
 you call this a laughing matter, sir?" he 
 said sternly, but in his more natural manner. 
 
 " Perhaps not, but I don t think, if you 
 will allow me to say so, my dear colonel, 
 that you have been treating the whole affair 
 very seriously. I left you two months ago 
 utterly opposed to views which you are now 
 treating as of no importance. And yet you 
 wish me to believe "that nothing has hap 
 pened, and that you have no further infor 
 mation than you had then. That this is so, 
 and that you are really no nearer the facts, 
 I am willing to believe from your ignorance 
 of what I have just told you, and your con 
 cern at it. But that you have not been in 
 fluenced in your judgment of what you do 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 143 
 
 know, I cannot believe ? " He drew nearer 
 Pendleton, and laid his hand upon his arm. 
 " I beg you to be frank with me, for the 
 sake of the person whose interests I see you 
 have at heart. In what way will the dis 
 covery I have just made affect them ? You 
 are not so far prejudiced as to be blind to 
 the fact that it may be dangerous because it 
 seems corroborative." 
 
 Pendleton coughed, rose, took his stick, 
 and limped up and down the room, finally 
 dropping into an armchair by the window, 
 with his cane between his knees, and the 
 drooping gray silken threads of his long 
 moustache curled nervously between his 
 fingers. 
 
 " Mr. Hathaway, I will be frank with you. 
 I know nothing of this blank affair blank 
 it all ! but what I ve told you. Your dis 
 covery may be a coincidence, nothing more. 
 But I have been influenced, sir, influenced 
 by one of the most perfect goddess-like 
 yes, sir ; one of the most simple girlish crea 
 tures that God ever sent upon earth. A 
 woman that I should be proud to claim as 
 my daughter, a woman that would always 
 be the superior of any man who dare aspire 
 to be her husband ! A young lady as peer- 
 
144 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 less in her beauty as she is in her accom 
 plishments, and whose equal don t walk this 
 planet ! I know, sir, you don t follow me ; 
 I know, Mr. Hathaway, your Puritan pre 
 judices ; your Church proclivities ; your 
 worldly sense of propriety ; and, above all, 
 sir, the blanked hypocritical Pharisaic doc 
 trines of your party I mean no offense to 
 yow, sir, personally blind you to that girl s 
 perfections. She, poor child, herself has 
 seen it and felt it ; but never, in her blame 
 less innocence and purity, suspecting the 
 cause. There is, she said to me last night, 
 confidentially, something strangely antag 
 onistic and repellent in our natures, some 
 undefined and nameless barrier between our 
 ever understanding each other. You com 
 prehend, Mr. Hathaway, she does full justice 
 to your intentions and your unquestioned 
 abilities. I am not blind, she said, to Mr. 
 Hathaway s gifts, and it is very possible 
 the fault lies with me. Her very words, 
 sir." 
 
 " Then you believe she is perfectly igno 
 rant of her real mother ? " asked Paul, with 
 a steady voice, but a whitening face. 
 
 " As an unborn child, " said the colonel, 
 emphatically. " The snow on the Sierras is 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 145 
 
 not more spotlessly pure of any trace or con 
 tamination of the mud of the mining ditches, 
 than she of her mother and her past. The 
 knowledge of it, the mere breath of suspicion 
 of it, in her presence would be a profanation, 
 sir ! Look at her eye open as the sky 
 and as clear ; look at her face and figure 
 as clean, sir, as a Blue-Grass thoroughbred ! 
 Look at the way she carries herself, whether 
 in those white frillings of her simple school- 
 gown, or that black evening dress that makes 
 her look like a princess ! And, blank me, if 
 she is n t one ! There s no poor stock there 
 no white trash no mixed blood, sir. 
 Blank it all, sir, if it comes to that the 
 Arguellos if there s a hound of them liv 
 ing might go down on their knees to have 
 their name borne by such a creature ! By 
 the Eternal, sir, if one of them dared to cross 
 her path with a word that wasn t abject 
 yes, sir, abject, I d wipe his dust off the 
 earth and send it back to his ancestors be 
 fore he knew where he was, or my name is n t 
 Harry Pendleton ! " 
 
 Hopeless and inconsistent as all this was, 
 it was a wonderful sight to see the colonel, 
 his dark stern face illuminated with a zeal 
 ot s enthusiasm, his eyes on fire, the ends of 
 
146 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 his gray moustache curling around his set 
 jaw, his head thrown back, his legs astride, 
 and his gold-headed stick held in the hollow 
 of his elbow, like a lance at rest ! Paul saw 
 it, and knew that this Quixotic transforma 
 tion was part of her triumph, and yet had a 
 miserable consciousness that the charms of 
 this Dulcinea del Toboso had scarcely been 
 exaggerated. He turned his eyes away, and 
 said quietly, 
 
 "Then you don t think this coincidence 
 will ever awaken any suspicion in regard to 
 her real mother ? " 
 
 " Not in the least, sir not in the least," 
 said the colonel, yet, perhaps, with more dog- 
 gedness than conviction of accent. " No 
 body but yourself would ever notice that 
 police report, and the connection of that 
 woman s name with his was not notorious, 
 or I should have known it." 
 
 " And you believe," continued Paul hope 
 lessly, "that Miss Yerba s selection of the 
 name was purely accidental?" 
 
 " Purely a school-girl s fancy* Fancy, 
 did I say? No, sir; by Jove, an inspira 
 tion!" 
 
 "And," continued Paul, almost mechan 
 ically, "you do not think it may be some 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 147 
 
 insidious suggestion of an enemy who knew 
 of this transient relation that no one sus 
 pected?" 
 
 To his final amazement Pendleton s brow 
 cleared ! " An enemy ? Gad ! you may be 
 right. I 11 look into it ; and, if that is the 
 case, which I scarcely dare hope for, Mr. 
 Hathaway, you can safely leave him to me. * 
 
 He looked so supremely confident in his 
 fatuous heroism that Paul could say no 
 more. He rose and, with a faint smile 
 upon his pale face, held out his hand. " I 
 think that is all I have to say. When you 
 see Miss Yerba again, as you will, no 
 d ou bt, you may tell her that I am con 
 scious of no misunderstanding on my part, 
 except, perhaps, as to the best way I could 
 serve her, and that, but for what she has 
 told you, I should certainly have carried 
 away no remembrance of any misunder 
 standing of hers." 
 
 " Certainly," said the colonel, with cheer 
 ful philosophy, " I will carry your message 
 with pleasure. You understand how it is, 
 Mr. Hathaway. There is no accounting for 
 these instincts we can only accept them as 
 they are. But I believe that your inten 
 tions, sir, were strictly according to what 
 
148 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 you conceived to be your duty. You won t 
 take something before you go ? Well, then 
 good-by." 
 
 Two weeks later Paul found among his 
 morning letters an envelope addressed in 
 Colonel Pendleton s boyish scrawling hand. 
 He opened it with an eagerness that no 
 studied self-control nor rigid preoccupation 
 of his duties had yet been able to subdue, 
 and glanced hurriedly at its contents : 
 
 DEAR SIR, As I am on the point of 
 sailing to Europe to-morrow to escort Miss 
 Arguello and Miss Woods on an extended 
 visit to England and the Continent, I am 
 desirous of informing you that I have thus 
 far been unable to find any foundation for 
 the suggestions thrown out by you in our 
 last interview. Miss Arguello s Spanish 
 acquaintances have been very select, and 
 limited to a few school friends and Don 
 Caesar and Dona Anna Briones, tried friends, 
 who are also fellow-passengers with us to 
 Europe. Miss Arguello suggests that some 
 political difference between you and Don 
 Caesar, which occurred during your visit to 
 Rosario three months ago, may have, per 
 haps, given rise to your supposition. She 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 149 
 
 joins me in best wishes for your public 
 career, which even in the distraction of for 
 eign travel and the obligations of her posi 
 tion she will follow from time to time with 
 the greatest interest. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 HARRY PENDLETON. 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 
 IT was on the 3d of August, 1863, that 
 Paul Hathaway resigned himself and his 
 luggage to the care of the gold-laced, osten 
 sible porter of the Strudle Bad Hof, not 
 without some uncertainty, in a land of uni 
 forms, whether he would be eventually con 
 ducted to the barracks, the police office, or 
 the Conservatoire. He was relieved when 
 the omnibus drove into the courtyard of the 
 Bad Hof, and the gold-chained chamberlain, 
 flanked by two green tubs of oleanders, re 
 ceived him with a gravity calculated to 
 check any preconceived idea he might have 
 that traveling was a trifling affair, or that 
 an arrival at the Bad Hof was not of seri 
 ous moment. His letters had not yet ar 
 rived, for he had, in a fit of restlessness, 
 shortened his route, and he strolled listlessly 
 into the reading-room. Two or three Eng 
 lish guests were evidently occupied in emi 
 nently respectable reading and writing ; two 
 were sitting by the window engaged in sub- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 151 
 
 dued but profitable conversation ; and two 
 Americans from Boston were contentedly 
 imitating them on the other side of the 
 room. A decent restraint, as of people who 
 were not for a moment to be led into any 
 foreign idea of social gayety at a watering- 
 place, was visible everywhere. A specta 
 cled Prussian officer in full uniform passed 
 along the hall, halted for a moment at the 
 doorway as if contemplating an armed inva 
 sion, thought better of it, and took his uni 
 form away into the sunlight of the open 
 square, where it was joined by other uni 
 forms, and became by contrast a miracle of 
 unbraced levity. Paul stood the Polar si 
 lence for a few moments, until one of the 
 readers arose and, taking his book a Mur- 
 ra y i n his hand, walked slowly across the 
 room to a companion, mutely pointed to a 
 passage in the book, remained silent until 
 the other had dumbly perused it, and then 
 walked back again to his seat, having 
 achieved the incident without a word. At 
 which Paul, convinced of his own incongru 
 ity, softly withdrew with his hat in his hand, 
 and his eyes fixed devotionally upon it. 
 
 It was good after that to get into the 
 slanting sunlight and checkered linden 
 
152 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 shadows of the Allee ; to see even a tightly 
 jacketed cavalryman naturally walking with 
 Cllirchen and her two round-faced and drab- 
 haired young charges ; to watch the return 
 ing invalid procession, very real and very 
 human, each individual intensely involved 
 in the atmosphere of his own symptoms ; 
 and very good after that to turn into the 
 Thiergarten, where the animals, were, how 
 ever, chiefly of his own species, and shame 
 lessly and openly amusing themselves. It 
 was pleasant to contrast it with his first 
 visit to the place three months before, and 
 correct his crude impressions. And it was 
 still more pleasant suddenly to recognize, 
 under the round flat cap of a general officer, 
 a former traveler who was fond of talking 
 with him about America with an intelli 
 gence and understanding of it that Paul 
 had often missed among his own traveled 
 countrymen. It was pleasant to hear his 
 unaffected and simple greeting, to renew 
 their old acquaintance, and to saunter back 
 to the hotel together through the long twi 
 light. 
 
 They were only a few squares from the 
 hotel, when Paul s attention was attracted 
 by the curiosity and delight of two or three 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 153 
 
 children before him, who appeared to be fol 
 lowing a quaint-looking figure that was evi 
 dently not unfamiliar to them. It appeared 
 to be a servant in a striking livery of green 
 with yellow facings and crested silver but 
 tons, but still more remarkable for the inde 
 scribable mingling of jaunty ease and con 
 scious dignity with which he carried off his 
 finery. There was something so singular 
 and yet so vaguely reminiscent in his pecu 
 liar walk and the exaggerated swing of his 
 light bamboo cane that Paul could not only 
 understand the childish wonder of the 
 passers-by, who turned to look after him, 
 but was stirred with a deeper curiosity. He 
 quickened his pace, but was unable to dis 
 tinguish anything of the face or features of 
 the stranger, except that his hair under his 
 cocked hat appeared to be tightly curled 
 and powdered. Paul s companion, who was 
 amused at what seemed to be the Ameri 
 can s national curiosity, had seen the figure 
 before. "A servant in the suite of some 
 Eastern Altesse visiting the baths. You 
 will see stranger things, my friend, in the 
 Strudle Bad. Par example^ your own 
 countrymen, too ; the one who has enriched 
 himself by that pork of Chicago, or that 
 
154 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 soap, or this candle, in a carriage with the 
 crest of the title he has bought in Italy with 
 his dollars, and his beautiful daughters, who 
 are seeking more titles with possible matri 
 monial contingencies." 
 
 After an early dinner, Paul found his way 
 to the little theatre. He had already been 
 struck by a highly colored poster near the 
 Balmhof, purporting that a distinguished 
 German company would give a representa 
 tion of " Uncle Tom s Cabin," and certain 
 peculiarities in the pictorial advertisement 
 of the tableaux gave promise of some enter 
 tainment. He found the theatre fairly full; 
 there was the usual contingent of abonnirte 
 officers, a fair sprinkling of English and 
 German travelers, but apparently none of 
 his own countrymen. He had no time to 
 examine the house more closely, for the 
 play, commencing with simple punctuality, 
 not only far exceeded the promise of the 
 posters, but of any previous performance of 
 the play he had witnessed. Transported at 
 once to a gorgeous tropical region the 
 slave States of America resplendent with 
 the fruits and palms of Mauritius, and peo 
 pled exclusively with Paul and Virginia s 
 companions in striped cotton, Hathaway 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 155 
 
 managed to keep a composed face, until the 
 arrival of the good Southern planter St. 
 Clair as one of the earlier portraits of Goe 
 the, in top boots, light kerseymere breeches, 
 redingote and loose Byron collar, compelled 
 him to shrink into the upper corner of the 
 box with his handkerchief to his face. 
 Luckily, the action passed as the natural 
 effect upon a highly sympathetic nature of 
 religious interviews between a round-faced 
 flaxen-haired "Kleine Eva" and "Onkeel 
 Tome," occasionally assisted by a Dissent 
 ing clergyman in Geneva bands ; of exces 
 sive brutality with a cattle whip by a Zamiel- 
 like Legree ; of the sufferings of a runaway 
 negro Zimmermadclien with a child three 
 shades lighter than herself ; and of a painted 
 canvas " man-hunt," where apparently four 
 well known German composers on horse 
 back, with flowing hair, top boots, and a 
 Cor de chasse, were pursuing, with the aid 
 of a pack of fox hounds, "the much too 
 deeply abused and yet spiritually elevated 
 Onkeel Tome." Paul did not wait for the 
 final apotheosis of " der Kleine Eva," but, 
 in the silence of a hushed audience, made 
 his way into the corridor and down the stair 
 case. He was passing an open door marked 
 
156 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " Direction," when his attention was sharply 
 attracted by a small gathering around it 
 and the sounds of indignant declamation. 
 It was the voice of a countryman more 
 than that, it was a familiar voice, that he 
 had not heard for three years the voice of 
 Colonel Harry Pendleton ! 
 
 "Tell him," said Pendleton, in scathing 
 tones, to some invisible interpreter, " tell, 
 him, sir, that a more infamous caricature of 
 the blankest caricature that ever maligned 
 a free people, sir, I never before had the 
 honor of witnessing. Tell him that 7, sir 
 
 I, Harry Pendleton, of Kentucky, a 
 Southerner, sir an old slaveholder, sir, 
 declare it to be a tissue of falsehoods unwor 
 thy the credence of a Christian civilization 
 like this unworthy the attention of the 
 distinguished ladies and gentlemen that are 
 gathered here to-night. Tell him, sir, he 
 has been imposed upon. Tell him I am re 
 sponsible give him my card and address 
 
 personally responsible for what I say. 
 If he wants proofs blank it all! tell 
 him you yourself have been a slave my 
 slave, sir! Take off your hat, sir! Ask 
 him to look at you ask him if he thinks 
 you ever looked or could look like that lop- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 157 
 
 eared, psalm-singing, white-headed hypocrite 
 on the stage ! Ask him, sir, if he thinks 
 that blank ringmaster they call St. Clair 
 looks like Me!" 
 
 At this astounding exordium Paul eagerly 
 pressed forward and entered the bureau. 
 There certainly was Colonel Pendleton, in 
 spotless evening dress ; erect, flashing, and 
 indignant ; his aquiline nose lifted like a 
 hawk s beak over his quarry, his iron-gray 
 moustache, now white and waxed, parted 
 like a swallow s tail over his handsome 
 mouth, and between him and the astounded 
 " Direction " stood the apparition of the 
 Allee George ! There was no mistaking 
 him now. What Paul had thought was a 
 curled wig or powder was the old negro s 
 own white knotted wool, and the astounding 
 livery he wore was carried off as no one but 
 George could carry it. 
 
 But he was still more amazed when the 
 old servant, in a German as exaggerated, as 
 incoherent, but still as fluent and persuasive 
 as his own native speech, began an extrava 
 gant but perfectly dignified and diplomatic 
 translation of his master s protests. Where 
 and when, by what instinct, he had assimi 
 lated and made his own the grotesque inver- 
 
158 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 sions and ponderous sentimentalities of Teu 
 tonic phrasing, Paul could not guess ; but it 
 was with breathless wonder that he presently 
 became aware that, so perfect and convin 
 cing was the old man s style and deportment, 
 not only the simple officials but even the 
 bystanders were profoundly impressed by 
 this farrago of absurdity. A happy word 
 here and there, the full title and rank given, 
 even with a slight exaggeration, to each in 
 dividual, brought a deep and guttural " So! " 
 from lips that would have found it difficult 
 to repeat a line of his ceremonious idiocy. 
 
 In their preoccupation neither the colonel 
 nor George had perceived Paul s entrance, 
 but, as the old servant turned with magnifi 
 cent courtesy towards the bystanders, his 
 eyes fell upon Paul. A Hash of surprise, 
 triumph, and satisfaction lit up his rolling 
 eyes. Paul instantly knew that he not only 
 recognized him, but that he had already 
 heard of and thoroughly appreciated a cer 
 tain distinguished position that Paul had 
 lately held, and was quick to apply it. In 
 tensifying for a moment the grandiloquence 
 of his manner, he called upon his master s 
 most distinguished and happily arrived old 
 friend, the Lord Lieutenant Governor of 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 159 
 
 the Golden Californias, to corroborate his 
 statement. Colonel Pendleton started, and 
 grasped Paul s hand warmly. Paul turned 
 to the already half-mollified Director with 
 the diplomatic suggestion that the vivid and 
 realistic acting of the admirable company 
 which he himself had witnessed had perhaps 
 unduly excited his old friend, even as it had 
 undoubtedly thrown into greater relief the 
 usual exaggerations of dramatic representa 
 tion, and the incident terminated with a 
 profusion of apologies, and the most cordial 
 expressions of international good feeling on 
 both sides. 
 
 Yet, as they turned away from the the 
 atre together, Paul could not help noticing 
 that, although the colonel s first greeting 
 had been spontaneous and unaffected, it was 
 succeeded by an uneasy reserve. Paul made 
 no attempt to break it, and confined him 
 self to a few general inquiries, ending by 
 inviting the colonel to sup with him at the 
 hotel. Pendleton hesitated. " At any other 
 time, Mr. Hathaway, I should have insisted 
 upon you, as the stranger, supping with me ; 
 but since the absence of of the rest of 
 my party 1 have given up my suite of 
 rooms at the Bad Hof, and have taken 
 
160 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 smaller lodgings for myself and the boy at 
 the Schwartze Adler. Miss Woods and 
 Miss Arguello have accepted an invitation 
 to spend a few days at the villa of the Baron 
 and Baroness von Schilprecht an hour or 
 two from here." He lingered over the title 
 with an odd mingling of impressiveness and 
 inquiry, and glanced at Paul. But Hatha 
 way exhibiting neither emotion nor surprise 
 at the mention of Yerba s name or the title 
 of her host, he continued, " Miss Arguello, 
 I suppose you know, is immensely admired : 
 she has been, sir, the acknowledged belle 
 of Strudle Bad." 
 
 " I can readily believe it," said Paul, 
 simply. 
 
 " And has taken the position the posi 
 tion, sir, to which she is entitled." 
 
 Without appearing to notice the slight 
 challenge in Pendleton s tone, Paul returned, 
 " I am glad to hear it. The more partic 
 ularly as, I believe, the Germans are great 
 sticklers for position and pedigree." 
 
 "You are right, sir quite right: they 
 are," said the colonel, proudly " although " 
 
 with a certain premeditated deliberation 
 
 "I have been credibly informed that the 
 King can, in certain cases, if he chooses, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 161 
 
 supply yes, sir supply a favored person 
 with ancestors yes, sir, with ancestors ! " 
 
 Paul cast a quick glance at his com 
 panion. 
 
 "Yes, sir that is, we will say, in the 
 case of a lady of inferior rank or even 
 birth, the King of these parts can, on her 
 marriage with a nobleman blank it all ! 
 ennoble her father and mother, and their 
 fathers and mothers, though they ve been 
 dead, or as good as dead, for years." 
 
 " I am afraid that s a slight exaggeration 
 of the rare custom of granting 4 noble lands, 
 or estates that carry hereditary titles with 
 them," said Paul, more emphatically, per 
 haps, than the occasion demanded. 
 
 " Fact, sir George there knows it all," 
 said Pendleton. " He gets it from the 
 other servants. I don t speak the language, 
 sir, but he does. Picked it up in a year." 
 
 " I must compliment him on his fluency, 
 certainly," said Paul, looking at George. 
 
 The old servant smiled, and not without a 
 certain condescension. " Yes, sah ; I don 
 say to a scholar like yo self, sah, dat I se 
 got de grandmatical presichion ; but as fah, 
 sah as fah as de idiotisms ob de language 
 goes. Sah it s gen lly allowed I m dar I 
 
162 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 As to what Marse Harry says ob de igno- 
 bling ob predecessors, I ve had it, sah, from 
 de best autority, sah de furst, I may say, 
 sah de real prima facie men de gem- 
 plum ob his Serene Highness, in de korse 
 eb ordinary conversashun, sah." 
 
 " That 11 do, George," said Pendleton, 
 with paternal brusqueness. " Run on ahead 
 and tell that blank chamberlain that Mr. 
 Hathaway is one of my friends and have 
 supper accordingly." As the negro has 
 tened away he turned to Paul: "What he 
 says is true : he s the most popular man or 
 boy in all Strudle Bad a devilish sight 
 more than his master and goes anywhere 
 where I can t go. Princes and princesses 
 stop and talk to him in the street ; the 
 Grand Duke asked permission to have him 
 np in his carriage at the races the other day ; 
 and, by the Eternal, sir, he gives the style 
 to all the flunkeys in town ! " 
 
 " And I see, he dresses the character," 
 observed Paul. 
 
 " His own idea entirely. And, by 
 Jove ! he proves to be right. You can t do 
 anything here without a uniform. And 
 they tell me he s got everything correct, 
 down to the crest on the buttons." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 163 
 
 They walked on in silence for a few mo 
 ments, Pendleton retaining a certain rigid 
 ity of step and bearing which Paul had 
 come to recognize as indicating some unea 
 siness or mental disturbance on his part. 
 Hathaway had no intention of precipitating 
 the confidence of his companion. Perhaps 
 experience had told him it would come soon 
 enough. So he spoke carelessly of himself. 
 How the need of a year s relaxation and 
 change had brought him abroad, his jour- 
 neyings, and, finally, how he had been ad 
 vised by his German physician to spend a 
 few weeks at Strudle Bad preparatory to 
 the voyage home. Yet he was perfectly 
 aware that the colonel from time to time 
 cast a furtive glance at his face. "And 
 you" he said in conclusion " when do 
 you intend to return to California ? " 
 
 The colonel hesitated slightly. " I shall 
 remain in Europe until Miss Arguello is 
 settled I mean," he added hurriedly, " un 
 til she has ahem ! completed her edu 
 cation in foreign ways and customs. You 
 see, Hathaway, I have constituted myself, 
 after a certain fashion, I may say still, 
 her guardian. I am an old man, with 
 neither kith nor kin myself, sir I m a 
 
164 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 little too old-fashioned for the boys over 
 there " with a vague gesture towards the 
 west, which, however, told Paul how near 
 it still was to him. " But then, among the 
 old f ogys here blank it all ! it is n t 
 noticed. So I look after her, you see, or 
 rather make myself responsible for her gen 
 erally although, of course, she has other 
 friends and associates, you understand, more 
 of her own age and tastes." 
 
 " And I ve no doubt she s perfectly sat 
 isfied," said Paul in a tone of conviction. 
 
 " Well, yes, sir, I presume so," said the 
 colonel slowly ; " but I ve sometimes 
 thought, Mr. Hathaway, that it would have 
 been better if she d have had a woman s 
 care the protection you understand, of an 
 elderly woman of society. That seems to 
 be the style here, you know a chaperon, 
 they call it. Now, Milly Woods, you see, 
 is about the same age, and the Dona Anna, 
 of course, is older, but blank it ! she s 
 as big a flirt as the rest I mean," he 
 added, correcting himself sharply, "she 
 lacks balance, sir, and what shall I call 
 it ? self-abnegation." 
 
 " Then Dona Anna is still of your party ? " 
 asked Paul. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 165 
 
 " She is, sir, and her brother, Don Caesar. 
 I have thought it advisable, on Yerba s ac 
 count, to keep up as much as possible the 
 suggestion of her Spanish relationship al- 
 Jiough by reason of their absurd ignorance 
 of geography and political divisions out 
 here, there is a prevailing impression that she 
 is a South American. A fact, sir. I have 
 myself been mistaken for the Dictator of 
 one of these infernal Republics, and I have 
 been pointed out as ruling over a million or 
 two of niggers like George ! " 
 
 There was no trace of any conception of 
 humor in the colonel s face, although he ut 
 tered a short laugh, as if in polite accep 
 tance of the possibility that Paul might have 
 one. Far from that, his companion, look 
 ing at the striking^ pro file and erect figure 
 at his siae at the long white moustache 
 which drooped from his dark cheeks, and re 
 membering his own sensations at first seeing 
 George thought the popular belief not so 
 wonderful. He was even forced to admit 
 that the perfect unconsciousness on the part 
 of master and man of any incongruity or 
 peculiarity in themselves assisted the public 
 misconception. And it was, I fear, with a 
 feeling of wicked delight that, on entering 
 
166 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the hotel, he hailed the evident consterna 
 tion of those correct fellow-countrymen from 
 whom he had lately fled, at what they appar 
 ently regarded as a national scandal. He 
 overheard their hurried assurance to their 
 English friends that his companions were 
 not from Boston, and enjoyed their mortifi 
 cation that this explanation did not seem to 
 detract from the interest and relief with 
 which the Britons surveyed them, or the 
 open admiration of the Germans. 
 
 Although Pendleton somewhat unbent 
 during supper, he did not allude to the se 
 cret of Yerba s parentage, nor of any tardy 
 confidence of hers. To all appearance the 
 situation remained as it was three years ago. 
 He spoke of her great popularity as an 
 heiress and a beautiful woman, and the 
 marked attentions she received. He doubted 
 not that she had rejected very distinguished 
 offers, but she kept that to herself. She 
 was perfectly competent to do so. She was 
 no giddy girl, to be flattered or deceived ; 
 on the contrary, he had never known a 
 cooler or more sensible woman. She knew 
 her own worth. When she met the man 
 who satisfied her ambition and understand 
 ing, she would marry, and not before. He 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 167 
 
 did not know what that ambition was ; it 
 was something exalted, of course. He could 
 only say, of his own knowledge, that last 
 year, when they were on the Italian lakes, 
 there was a certain prince Mr. Hathaway 
 would understand why he did not mention 
 names who was not only attentive to her, 
 but attentive to him, sir, by Jove ! and 
 most significant in his inquiries. It was 
 the only occasion when he, the colonel, had 
 ever spoken to her on such subjects ; and, 
 knowing that she was not indifferent to the 
 fellow, who was not bad of his kind, he had 
 asked her why she had not encouraged his 
 suit. She had said, with a laugh, that he 
 could n t marry her unless he gave up his 
 claim of succession to a certain reigning 
 house ; and she would n t accept him with 
 out it. Those were her words, sir, and he 
 could only say that the prince left a few 
 days afterwards, and they had never seen 
 him since. As to the princelings and 
 counts and barons, she knew to a day the 
 date of their patents of nobility, and what 
 privileges they were entitled to ; she could 
 tell to a dot the value of their estates, the 
 amount of their debts, and, by Jove ! sir, 
 the amount of mortgages she was expected 
 
168 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to pay off before she married them. She 
 knew the amount of income she had to 
 bring to the Prussian Army, from the gen 
 eral to the lieutenant. She understood her 
 own value and her rights. There was a 
 young English lordling she met on the 
 Ehine, whose boyish ways and simplicity 
 seemed to please her. They were great 
 friends ; but he wanted him the colonel 
 to induce her to accept an invitation for 
 both to visit his mother s home in England, 
 
 O 
 
 that his people might see her. But she de 
 clined, sir ! She declined to pass in review 
 before his mother. She said it was for Mm 
 to pass in review before her mother. 
 
 "Did she say that?" interrupted Paul, 
 fixing his bright eyes upon the colonel. 
 
 " If she had one, if she had one," cor 
 rected the colonel, hastily. " Of course it 
 was only an illustration. That she is an 
 orphan is generally known, sir." 
 
 There was a dead silence for a few mo 
 ments. The colonel leaned back in his chair 
 and pulled his moustache. Paul turned 
 away his eyes, and seemed absorbed in re 
 flection. After a moment the colonel 
 coughed, pushed aside his glass, and, lean 
 ing across the table, said, " I have a favor 
 to ask of yon, Mr. Hathaway." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 169 
 
 There was such a singular change in the 
 tone of his voice, an unexpected relaxation 
 of some artificial tension, a relaxation 
 which struck Paul so pathetically as being 
 as much physical as mental, as if he had 
 suddenly been overtaken in some exertion 
 by the weakness of age, that he looked 
 up quickly. Certainly, although still erect 
 and lightly grasping his moustache, the 
 colonel looked older. 
 
 "By all means, my dear colonel," said 
 Paul warmly. 
 
 " During the time you remain here you 
 can hardly help meeting Miss Arguello, per 
 haps frequently. It would be strange if you 
 did not; it would appear to everybody still 
 stranger. Give me your word as a gentle 
 man that you will not make the least allu 
 sion to her of the past nor reopen the 
 subject." 
 
 Paul looked fixedly at the colonel. " I 
 certainly had no intention of doing so," he 
 said after a pause, " for I thought it was al 
 ready settled by you beyond disturbance or 
 discussion. But do I understand you, that 
 she has shown any uneasiness regarding 
 it ? From what you have just told me of 
 her plans and ambition, I can scarcely im- 
 
170 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 agine that she has any suspicion of the real 
 facts." 
 
 " Certainly not," said the colonel hur 
 riedly. " But I have your promise." 
 
 " I promise you," said Paul, after a pause, 
 " that I shall neither introduce nor refer to 
 the subject myself, and that if she should 
 question me again regarding it, which is 
 hardly possible, I will reveal nothing with 
 out your consent." 
 
 "Thank you," said Pendleton, without, 
 however, exhibiting much relief in his face. 
 " She will return here to-morrow." 
 
 "I thought you said she was absent for 
 some days," said Paul. 
 
 " Yes ; but she is coming back to say 
 good-by to Dona Anna, who arrives here 
 with her brother the same day, on their way 
 to Paris." 
 
 It flashed through Paul s mind that the 
 last time he had seen her was in the com 
 pany of the Briones. It was not a pleasant 
 concidence. Yet he was not aware that it 
 had affected him, until he saw the colonel 
 watching him. 
 
 " I believe you don t fancy the brother," 
 said Pendleton. 
 
 For an instant Paul was strongly tempted 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 171 
 
 to avow his old vague suspicions of Don 
 Caesar, but the utter hopelessness of reopen 
 ing the whole subject again, and his recol 
 lection of the passage in Pendleton s letter 
 that purported to be Yerba s own theory of 
 his dislike, checked him in time. He only 
 said, " I don t remember whether I had any 
 cause for disliking Don Caesar ; I can tell 
 better when I see him again," and changed 
 the subject. A few moments later the colo 
 nel summoned George from some lower re 
 gion of the hotel, and rose to take his leave. 
 " Miss Arguello, with her maid and courier, 
 will occupy her old suite of rooms here," he 
 remarked, with a return of his old imperi- 
 ousness. " George has given the orders for 
 her. / shall not change my present lodgings, 
 but of course will call every day. Good 
 night!" 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE next morning Paul could not help 
 noticing an increased and even exaggerated 
 respect paid him by the hotel attendants. 
 He was asked if his Excellency would be 
 served with breakfast in a private room, 
 and his condescension in selecting the pub 
 lic coffee-room struck the obsequious cham 
 berlain, but did not prevent him from pre 
 ceding Paul backwards to the table, and 
 summoning a waiter to attend specially upon 
 "milor." Surmising that George and the 
 colonel might be in some way connected 
 with this extravagance, he postponed an in 
 vestigation till he should have seen them 
 again. And, although he hardly dared to 
 confess it to himself, the unexpected pros 
 pect of meeting Yerba again fully preoccu 
 pied his thoughts. He had believed that 
 he would eventually see her in Europe, in 
 some vague and indefinite way and hour : 
 it had been in his mind when he started 
 from California. That it would be so soon, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 173 
 
 and in such a simple and natural manner, 
 he had never conceived. 
 
 " He had returned from his morning walk 
 to the Brunnerii and was sitting idly in his 
 room, when there was a knock at the door. 
 It opened to a servant bearing a salver with 
 a card. Paul lifted it with a slight tremor, 
 not at the engraved name of " Maria Con- 
 cepcion de Arguellos de la Yerba Buena," 
 but at the remembered school-girl hand that 
 had penciled underneath the words, " wishes 
 the favor of an audience with his Excellency 
 the Lord Lieutenant-Governor of the Cali- 
 fornias." 
 
 Paul looked inquiringly at the servant. 
 "The gnadige Fraulein was in her own 
 salon. Would Excellency walk that way ? 
 It was but a step ; in effect, the next apart 
 ment/ 
 
 Paul followed him into the hall with won 
 dering steps. The door of the next room 
 was open, and disclosed a handsomely fur 
 nished salon. A tall graceful figure rose 
 quickly from behind a writing-table, and 
 advanced with outstretched hands and a 
 frank yet mischievous smile. It was Yerba. 
 
 Standing there in a grayish hat* mantle, 
 and traveling dress, all of one subdued yet 
 
174 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 alluring tone, she looked as beautiful as 
 when he had last seen her and yet un 
 like. For a brief bitter moment his instincts 
 revolted at this familiar yielding up in his 
 fair countrywomen of all that was distinc 
 tively original in them to alien tastes and 
 habits, and he resented the plastic yet char 
 acterless mobility which made Yerba s Pari 
 sian dress and European manner fit her so 
 charmingly and yet express so little. For 
 a brief critical moment he remembered the 
 placid, unchanging simplicity of German, 
 and the inflexible and ingrained reserve of 
 English, girlhood, in opposition to this indis 
 tinctive cosmopolitan grace. But only for 
 a moment. As soon as she spoke, a certain 
 flavor of individuality seemed to return to 
 her speech. 
 
 " Confess," she said, " it was a courageous 
 thing for me to do. You might have been 
 somebody else a real Excellency or 
 Heaven knows what ! Or, what is worse in 
 your new magnificence, you might have for 
 gotten one of your oldest, most humble, but 
 faithful subjects." She drew back and made 
 him a mock ceremonious curtsy, that even 
 in its charming exaggeration suggested to 
 Paul, however, that she had already made 
 it somewhere seriously. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 175 
 
 " But what does it all mean ? " he asked, 
 smiling, feeling not only his doubts and un 
 easiness vanish, but even the years of sepa 
 ration melt away in her presence. " I know 
 I went to bed last night a very humble 
 individual, and yet I seem to awaken this 
 morning a very exalted personage. Am I 
 really Commander of the Faithful, or am I 
 dreaming ? Might I trouble you, as my pre 
 decessor Abou Hassan did Sweetlips, to bite 
 my little finger ? " 
 
 " Do you mean to say you have not seen 
 the Anzeiger ? : she returned, taking a 
 small German printed sheet from the table 
 and pointing to a paragraph. Paul took the 
 paper. Certainly there was the plain an 
 nouncement among the arrivals of " His Ex 
 cellency Paul Hathaway, Lord Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the Californias." A light 
 flashed upon him. 
 
 " This is George s work. He and Colonel 
 Pendleton were here with me last night." 
 
 " Then you have seen the colonel al 
 ready ? " she said, with a scarcely percep 
 tible alteration of expression, which, how 
 ever, struck Paul. 
 
 " Yes. I met him at the theatre last even 
 ing." He was about to plunge into an 
 
176 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 animated description of the colonel s indig 
 nation, but checked himself, he knew not 
 why. But he was thankful the next mo 
 ment that he had. 
 
 "That accounts for everything," she said, 
 lifting her pretty shoulders with a slight 
 shrug of weariness. , " I had to put a stop 
 to George s talking about me three months 
 a g his extravagance is something too aw 
 ful. And the colonel, who is complete^ in 
 his hands, trusting him for everything, 
 even the language, doesn t see it." 
 
 " But he is extravagant in the praise of 
 his friends only, and you certainly justify 
 all he can say." 
 
 She was taking off her hat, and stopped 
 for a moment to look at him thoughtfully, 
 with the soft tendrils of her hair clingin^ to 
 her forehead. " Did the colonel talk much 
 about me ? " 
 
 "A great deal. -In fact, I think we talked 
 of nothing else. He has told me of your 
 triumphs and your victims ; of your various 
 campaigns and your conquests. And yet I 
 dare say he has not told me all and I 
 am dying to hear more." 
 
 She had laid down her hat and unloosed 
 a large bow of her mantle, but stopped sud- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 177 
 
 denly in the midst of it and sat down 
 again. 
 
 " I wish you d do something for me." 
 
 " You have only to name it." 
 
 " Well, drop all this kind of talk ! Try 
 to think of me as if I had just come from 
 California or, better, as if you had never 
 known anything of me at all and we met 
 for the first time. You could, I dare say, 
 make yourself very agreeable to such a 
 young lady who was willing to be pleased 
 why not to me ? I venture to say you have 
 not ever troubled yourself about me since 
 we last met. No hear me through 
 why, then, should you wish to talk over 
 what did n t concern you at the time ? 
 Promise me you will stop this reminiscent 
 gossip, and I promise you / will not only 
 not bore you with it, but take care that it is 
 not intruded upon you by others. Make 
 yourself pleasant to me by talking about 
 yourself and your prospects anything but 
 me and I will throw over those princes 
 and barons that the colonel has raved about 
 and devote myself to you while you are 
 here. Does that suit your Excellency ? " 
 She had crossed her knees, and, with her 
 hands clasped over them, and the toe of her 
 
178 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 small boot advanced beyond her skirt, leaned 
 forward in the attitude he remembered to 
 have seen her take in the summer-house at 
 Rosario. 
 
 " Perfectly," he said. 
 
 " How long will you be here ? " 
 
 " About three weeks : that, I believe, is 
 the time allotted for my cure." 
 
 " Are you really ill," she said quietly, " or 
 imagine yourself so ? " 
 
 "It amounts to about the same thing. 
 But my cure may not take so long," he 
 added, fixing his bright eyes upon her. 
 
 She returned his gaze thoughtfully, and 
 they remained looking at each other silently. 
 
 " Then you are stronger than you give 
 yourself credit for. That is very often the 
 case," she said quietly. " There," she added 
 in another tone, "it is settled. You will 
 come and go as you like, using this salon as 
 your own. Stay, we can do something to 
 day. What do you say to a ride in the for 
 est this afternoon? Milly isn t here yet, 
 but it will be quite proper for you to accom 
 pany me on horseback, though, of course, 
 we could n t walk a hundred yards down the 
 Allee together unless we were verlobt." 
 
 "But," said Paul, "you are expecting 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 179 
 
 company this afternoon. Don Cassar I 
 mean Miss Briones and her brother are 
 coming here to say good-by." 
 
 She regarded him curiously, but without 
 emotion. 
 
 " Colonel Pendleton should have added 
 that they were to remain here overnight as 
 my guests," she said composodly. And of 
 course we shall be back in time for dinner. 
 But that is nothing to you. You have only 
 to be ready at three o clock. I will see that 
 the horses are ordered. I often ride here, 
 and the people know my tastes and habits. 
 We will have a pleasant ride and a good 
 long talk together, and I 11 show you a ruin 
 and a distant view of the villa where I have 
 been staying." She held out her hand with 
 a frank girlish smile, and even a girlish an 
 ticipation of pleasure in her brown eyes. 
 He bent over her slim fingers for a moment, 
 and withdrew. 
 
 When he was in his own room again, he 
 was conscious only of a strong desire to 
 avoid the colonel until after his ride with 
 Yerba. He would keep his word so far as 
 to abstain from allusion to her family or her 
 past : indeed, he had his own opinion of its 
 futility. But it would be strange if, with 
 
180 A WARD OF TEE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 his past experience, he could not find some 
 other way to determine her convictions or 
 win her confidence during those two hours 
 of companionship. He would accept her 
 terms fairly ; if she had any ulterior design 
 in her advances, he would detect it ; if she 
 had the least concern for him, she could not 
 continue long an artificial friendship. But 
 he must not think of that ! 
 
 By absenting himself from the hotel he 
 managed to keep clear of Pendleton until 
 the hour arrived. He was gratified to find 
 Yerba in the simplest and most sensible of 
 habits, as if she had already divined his 
 tastes and had wished to avoid attracting 
 undue attention. Nevertheless, it very pret 
 tily accented her tall graceful figure, and 
 Paul, albeit, like most artistic admirers of 
 the sex, not recognizing a woman on a horse 
 as a particularly harmonious spectacle, was 
 forced to admire her. Both rode well, and 
 naturally having been brought up in the 
 same Western school the horses recog 
 nized it, and instinctively obeyed them, and 
 their conversation had the easy deliberation 
 and inflection of a tete-d-tete. Paul, in view 
 of her previous hint, talked to her of him 
 self and his fortunes, of which she ap- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 181 
 
 peared, however, to have some knowledge. 
 His health had obliged him lately to abandon 
 politics and office ; he had been successful 
 in some ventures, and had become a junior 
 partner in a bank with foreign correspon 
 dence. She listened to him for some time 
 with interest and attention, but at last her 
 face became abstracted and thoughtful. " I 
 wish I were a man ! " she said suddenly. 
 
 Paul looked at her quickly. For the first 
 time he detected in the ring of her voice 
 something of the passionate quality he fan 
 cied he had always seen in her face. 
 
 " Except that it might give you better 
 control of your horse, I don t see why," said 
 Paul. " And I don t entirely believe you." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because no woman really wishes to be a 
 man unless she is conscious of her failure as 
 a woman." 
 
 "And how do you know I m not?" she 
 said, checking her horse and looking in his 
 face. A quick conviction that she was on 
 the point of some confession sprang into his 
 mind, but unfortunately showed in his face. 
 She beat back his eager look with a short 
 laugh. "There, don t speak, and don t 
 look like that. That remark was worthy 
 
182 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the usual artless maiden s invitation to a 
 compliment, was n t it ? Let us keep to the 
 subject of yourself. Why, with your polit 
 ical influence, don t you get yourself ap 
 pointed to some diplomatic position over 
 here?" 
 
 " There are none in our service. You 
 wouldn t want me to sink myself in some 
 absurd social functions, which are called by 
 that name, merely to become the envy and 
 hatred of a few rich republicans, like your 
 friends who haunt foreign courts ? " 
 
 " That s not a pretty speech but I sup 
 pose I invited that too. Don t apologize. 
 I d rather see you flare out like that than 
 pay compliments. Yet I fancy you re a 
 diplomatist, for all that." 
 
 " You did me the honor to believe I was 
 one once, when I was simply the most pal 
 pable ass and bungler living," said Paul 
 bitterly. 
 
 She was still sweetly silent, apparently 
 preoccupied in smoothing out the mane of 
 her walking horse. " Did I ? " she said 
 softly. He drew close beside her. 
 
 " How different the vegetation is here 
 from what it is with us ! " she said with ner 
 vous quickness, directing his attention to 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 183 
 
 the grass road beneath them, without lifting 
 her eyes. " I don t mean what is cultivated, 
 for I suppose it takes centuries to make 
 the lawns they have in England, but even 
 here the blades of grass seem to press closer 
 together, as if they were crowded or over- 
 populated, like the country ; and this for 
 est, which has been always wild and was a 
 hunting park, has a blase look, as if it was 
 already tired of the unchanging traditions 
 and monotony around it. I think over 
 there Nature affects and influences us : here, 
 1 fancy, it is itself affected by the people." 
 
 "I think a good deal of Nature comes 
 over from America for that purpose," he 
 said dryly. 
 
 "And I think you are breaking your 
 promise besides being a goose ! " she re 
 torted smartly. Nevertheless, for some oc 
 cult reason they both seemed relieved by 
 this exquisite witticism, and trotted on ami 
 cably together. When Paul lifted his eyes 
 to hers he could see that they were suffused 
 with a tender mischief, as of a reproving 
 yet secretly admiring sister, and her strangely 
 delicate complexion had taken on itself that 
 faint Alpine glow that was more of an illu 
 mination than a color. " There," she said 
 
184 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 gayly, pointing with her whip as the wood 
 opened upon a glade through which the 
 parted trees showed a long blue curvature 
 of distant hills, " you see that white thing 
 lying like a snowdrift on the hills ? " 
 " Or the family washing on a hedge." 
 " As you please. Well, that is the villa." 
 " And you were very happy there?" said 
 Paul, watching her girlishly animated face. 
 
 " Yes ; and as you don t ask questions, 
 I 11 tell you why. There is one of the 
 sweetest old ladies there that I ever met 
 the perfection of old-time courtliness with 
 all the motherishness of a German woman. 
 She was very kind to me, and, as she had 
 no daughter of her own, I think she treated 
 me as if I was one. At least, I can imagine 
 how one would feel to her, and what a 
 woman like that could make of any girl. 
 You laugh, Mr. Hathaway, you don t un 
 derstand but you don t know what an ad 
 vantage it would be to a girl to have a 
 mother like that, and know that she could 
 fall back on her and hold her own against 
 anybody. She s equipped from the start, 
 instead of being handicapped. It s all very 
 well to talk about the value of money. It 
 can give you everything but one thing 
 the power to do without it." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 185 
 
 "I think its purchasing value would in 
 clude even the gn ddige Fran" said Paul, 
 who had laughed only to hide the uneasi 
 ness that Yerba s approach to the tabooed 
 subject had revived in him. She shook her 
 head ; then, recovering her tone of gentle 
 banter, said, " There I ve made a con 
 fession. If the colonel talks to you again 
 about my conquests, you will know that at 
 present my affections are centred on the 
 Baron s mother. I admit it s a strong point 
 in his in anybody s favor, who can 
 show an unblemished maternal pedigree. 
 What a pity it is you are an orphan, like 
 myself, Mr. Hathaway ! For I fancy your 
 mother must have been a very perfect 
 woman. A great deal of her tact and pro 
 priety has descended to you. Only it would 
 have been nicer if she had given it to you, 
 like pocket money, as occasion required 
 which you might have shared with me 
 than leaving it to you in one thumping 
 legacy." 
 
 It was impossible to tell how far the 
 playfulness of her brown eyes suggested any 
 ulterior meaning, for as Paul again eagerly 
 drew towards her, she sent her horse into 
 a rapid canter before him. When he was 
 
186 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 at her side again, she said, " There is still 
 the ruin to see on our way home. It is just 
 off here to the right. But if you wish to 
 go over it we will have to dismount at the 
 foot of the slope and walk up. It has n t 
 any story or legend that I know of ; I 
 looked over the guide - book to cram for it 
 before you came, but there was nothing. So 
 you can invent what you like." 
 
 They dismounted at the beginning of a 
 gentle acclivity, where an ancient wagon- 
 road, now grass-grown, rose smooth as a 
 glacis. Tying their horses to two moplike 
 bushes, they climbed the slope hand in hand 
 like children. There were a few winding 
 broken steps, part of a fallen archway, a 
 few feet of vaulted corridor, a sudden breach 
 the sky beyond and that was all ! Not 
 all ; for before them, overlooked at first, 
 lay a chasm covering half an acre, in which 
 the whole of the original edifice tower 
 turrets, walls, and battlements had been 
 apparently cast, inextricably mixed and min 
 gled at different depths and angles, with 
 here and there, like mushrooms from a dust- 
 heap, a score of trees upspringing. 
 
 " This is not Time but gunpowder," 
 said Paul, leaning over a parapet of the 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 187 
 
 wall and gazing at the abyss, with a slight 
 grimace. 
 
 " It don t look very romantic, certainly," 
 said Yerba. " I only saw it from the road 
 before. I m dreadfully sorry," she added, 
 with mock penitence. " I suppose, however, 
 something must have happened here." 
 
 " There may have been nobody in the 
 house at the time," said Paul gravely. 
 " The family may have been at the baths." 
 
 They stood close together, their elbows 
 resting upon the broken wall, and almost 
 touching. Beyond the abyss and darker 
 forest they could see the more vivid green 
 and regular lines of the plane-trees of 
 Strudle Bad, the glitter of a spire, or the 
 flash of a dome. From the abyss itself 
 arose a cool odor of moist green leaves, the 
 scent of some unseen blossoms, and around 
 the baking vines on the hot wall the hum of 
 apparently taskless and disappointed bees. 
 There was nobody in sight in the forest 
 road, no one working in the bordering fields, 
 and no suggestion of the present. There 
 might have been three or four centuries be 
 tween them and Strudle Bad. 
 
 "The legend of this place," said Paul, 
 glancing at the long brown lashes and oval 
 
188 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 outline of the cheek so near his own, "is 
 simple, yet affecting. A cruel, remorse 
 less, but fascinating Hexie was once loved 
 by a simple shepherd. He had never dared 
 to syllable his hopeless affection, or claim 
 from her a syllabled perhaps I should 
 say a one-syllabled reply. He had fol 
 lowed her from remote lands, dumbly wor 
 shiping her, building in his foolish brain 
 an air-castle of happiness, which by reason 
 of her magic power she could always see 
 plainly in his eyes. And one day, beguil 
 ing him in the depths of the forest, she led 
 him to a fair-seeming castle, and, bidding 
 him enter its portals, offered to show him a 
 realization of his dream. But, lo ! even as 
 he entered the stately corridor it seemed to 
 crumble away before him, and disclosed a 
 hideous abyss beyond, in which the whole 
 of that goodly palace lay in heaped and 
 tangled ruins the fitting symbol of his 
 wrecked and shattered hopes." 
 
 She drew back a little way from him, but 
 still holding on to the top of the broken 
 wall with one slim gauntleted hand, and 
 swung herself to one side, while she sur 
 veyed him with smiling, parted lips and con 
 scious eyelids. He promptly covered her 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 189 
 
 hand with his own, but she did not seem to 
 notice it. 
 
 " That is not the story," she said, in a 
 faint voice that even her struggling sauci- 
 ness could not make steadier. " The true 
 story is called The Legend of the Goose- 
 Girl of Strudle Bad, and the enterprising 
 Gosling. There was once a goose-girl of 
 the plain who tried honestly to drive her 
 geese to market, but one eccentric and will 
 ful gosling - Mr. Hathaway ! Stop 
 please I beg you let me go ! " 
 
 He had caught her in his arms the one 
 encircling her waist, the other hand still 
 grasping hers. She struggled, half laugh 
 ing ; yielded for a breathless moment as his 
 lips brushed her cheek, and threw him 
 off. "There! "she said, "that will do: 
 the story was not illustrated." 
 
 "But, Yerba," he said, with passionate 
 eagerness, " hear me it is all God s truth. 
 I love you ! " 
 
 She drew back farther, shaking the dust 
 of the wall from the folds of her habit. 
 Then, with a lower voice and a paler cheek, 
 as if his lips had sent her blood and utter 
 ance back to her heart, she said, " Come, 
 let us go." 
 
190 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " But not until you ve heard me, Yerba." 
 
 " Well, then I believe you there ! " 
 she said, looking at him. 
 
 "You believe me?" he repeated eagerly, 
 attempting to take her hand again. 
 
 She drew back still farther. " Yes," she 
 said, " or I should n t be here now. There ! 
 that must suffice you. And if you wish me 
 still to believe you, you will not speak of 
 this again while we are out together. Come, 
 let us go back to the horses/ 
 
 He looked at her with all his soul. She 
 was pale, but composed, and he could see 
 determined. He followed her without a 
 word. She accepted his hand to support 
 her again down the slope without embarrass 
 ment or reminiscent emotion. The whole 
 scene through which she had just passed 
 might have been buried in the abyss and 
 ruins behind her. As she placed her foot 
 in his hand to remount, and for a moment 
 rested her weight on his shoulder, her brown 
 eyes met his frankly and without a tremor. 
 
 Nor was she content with this. As Paul 
 at first rode on silently, his heart filled with 
 unsatisfied yearning, she rallied him mis 
 chievously. Was it kind in him on this, 
 their first day together, to sulk in this fash- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 191 
 
 ion ? Was it a promise for their future 
 excursions ? Did he intend to carry this 
 lugubrious visage through the Allee and up 
 to the courtyard of the hotel to proclaim 
 his sentimental condition to the world ? At 
 least, she trusted he would not show it to 
 Milly, who might remember that this was 
 only the second time they had met each 
 other. There was something so sweetly 
 reasonable in this, and withal not without 
 a certain hopefulness for the future, to say 
 nothing of the half - mischievous, half - re 
 proachful smile that accompanied it, that 
 Paul exerted himself, and eventually recov 
 ered his lost gayety. When they at last 
 drew up in the courtyard, with the flush of 
 youth and exercise in their faces, Paul felt 
 he was the object of envy to the loungers, 
 and of fresh gossip to Strudle Bad. It 
 struck him less pleasantly that two dark 
 faces, which had been previously regarding 
 him in the gloom of the corridor and van 
 ished as he approached, reappeared some 
 moments later in Yerba s salon as Don 
 Caesar and Dona Anna, with a benignly dif 
 ferent expression. Dona Anna especially 
 greeted him with so much of the ostentatious 
 archness of a confident and forgiving woman 
 
192 A WARD OF TEE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to a momentarily recreant lover, that he felt 
 absurdly embarrassed in Yerba s presence. 
 He was thinking how he could excuse him 
 self, when he noticed a beautiful basket of 
 flowers on the table and a tiny note bearing 
 a baron s crest. Yerba had put it aside 
 with as it seemed to him at the moment 
 
 an almost too pronounced indifference 
 
 and an indifference that was strongly 
 contrasted to Dona Anna s eagerly expressed 
 enthusiasm over the offering, and her ulti 
 mate supplications to Paul and her brother 
 to admire its beauties and the wonderful 
 taste of the donor. 
 
 All this seemed so incongruous with Paul s 
 feelings, and above all with the recollection 
 of his scene with Yerba, that he excused 
 himself from dining with the party, alleging 
 an engagement with his old fellow-traveler 
 the German officer, whose acquaintance he 
 had renewed. Yerba did not press him ; he 
 even fancied she looked relieved. Colonel 
 Pendleton was coining ; Paul was not loath, 
 in his present frame of mind, to dispense 
 with his company. A conviction that the 
 colonel s counsel was not the best guide for 
 Yerba, and that in some vague way their in 
 terests were antagonistic, had begun to 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 193 
 
 force itself upon him. He had no intention 
 of being disloyal to her old guardian, but 
 he felt that Pendleton had not been frank 
 with him since his return from Rosario. 
 Had he ever been so with her ? He some 
 times doubted his disclaimer. 
 
 He was lucky in finding the General dis 
 engaged, and together they dined at a res 
 taurant and spent the evening at the Kur- 
 saaL Later, at the Residenz Club, the 
 General leaned over his beer-glass and smil 
 ingly addressed his companion. 
 
 " So I hear you, too, are a conquest of the 
 beautiful South American." 
 
 For an instant Paul, recognizing only 
 Dona Anna under that epithet, looked puz 
 zled. 
 
 " Come, my friend," said the General re 
 garding him with some amusement, " I am 
 an older man than you, yet I hardly think 
 I could have ridden out with such a god 
 dess without becoming her slave." 
 
 Paul felt his face flush in spite of himself. 
 "Ah! you mean Miss Arguello," he said 
 hurriedly, his color increasing at his own 
 mention of that name as if he were impos 
 ing it upon his honest companion. " She 
 is an old acquaintance of mine from my 
 own State California." 
 
194 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 "Ah, so," said the General, lifting his 
 eyebrows in profound apology. "A thou 
 sand pardons." 
 
 " Surely," said Paul, with a desperate at 
 tempt to recover his equanimity, " you ought 
 to know our geography better. 
 
 " So, I am wrong. But still the name 
 Arguello surely that is not American ? 
 Still, they say she has no accent, and does 
 not look like a Mexican." 
 
 For an instant Paul was superstitiously 
 struck with the fatal infelicity of Yerba s 
 selection of a foreign name, that now seemed 
 only to invite that comment and criticism 
 which she should have avoided. Nor could 
 he explain it at length to the General with 
 out assisting and accenting the deception, 
 which he was always hoping in some vague 
 way to bring to an end. He was sorry he 
 had corrected the General ; he was furious 
 that he had allowed himself to be confused. 
 
 Happily his companion had misinterpreted 
 his annoyance, and with impulsive German 
 friendship threw himself into what he be 
 lieved to be Paul s feelings. " Donnerwet- 
 ter I Your beautiful countrywoman is made 
 the subject of curiosity just because that 
 stupid baron is persistent in his serious at- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 195 
 
 tentions. That is quite enough, my good 
 friend, to make Klatschen here among those 
 animals who do not understand the freedom 
 of an American girl, or that an heiress may 
 have something else to do with her money 
 than to expend it on the Baron s mortgages. 
 But " he stopped, and his simple, honest 
 face assumed an air of profound and saga 
 cious cunning "I am glad to talk about 
 it with you, who of course are perfectly 
 familiar with the affair. I shall now be 
 able to know what to say. My word, my 
 friend, has some weight here, and I shall 
 use it. And now you shall tell me who is 
 our lovely friend, and who were her parents 
 and her kindred in her own home. Her 
 associates here, you possibly know, are an 
 impossible colonel and his never-before-ap 
 proached valet, with some South American 
 Indian planters, and, I believe, a pork- 
 butcher s daughter. But of them it makes 
 nothing. Tell me of her people." 
 
 With his kindly serious face within a few 
 inches of Paul s, and sympathizing curiosity 
 beaming from his pince-nez, he obliged the 
 wretched and conscience-stricken Hathaway 
 to respond with a detailed account of 
 Yerba s parentage as projected by herself 
 
196 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 and indorsed by Colonel Pendleton. He 
 dwelt somewhat particularly on the roman 
 tic character of the Trust, hoping to draw 
 the General s attention away from the ques 
 tion of relationship, but he was chagrined 
 to find that the honest warrior evidently 
 confounded the Trust with some eleemosy 
 nary institution and sympathetically glossed 
 it over. " Of course," he said, " the Mexi 
 can Minister at Berlin would know all about 
 the Arguello family : so there would be no 
 question there." 
 
 Paul was not sorry when the time came 
 to take leave of his friend ; but once again 
 in the clear moonlight and fresh, balmy air 
 of the Allee, he forgot the unpleasantness 
 of the interview. He found himself think 
 ing only of his ride with Yerba. Well ! he 
 had told her that he loved her. She knew 
 it now, and although she had forbidden him 
 to speak further, she had not wholly rejected 
 it. It must be her morbid consciousness of 
 the mystery of her birth that withheld a re 
 turn of her affections, some half-know 
 ledge, perhaps, that she would not divulge, 
 yet that kept her unduly sensitive of accept 
 ing his love. He was satisfied there was no 
 entanglement ; her heart was virgin. He 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 197 
 
 even dared to hope that she had always 
 cared for him. It was for him to remove 
 all obstacles to prevail upon her to leave 
 this place and return to America with him 
 as her husband, the guardian of her good 
 name, and the custodian of her secret. At 
 times the strains of a dreamy German waltz, 
 played in the distance, brought back to him 
 the brief moment that his arm had encircled 
 her waist by the crumbling wall, and his 
 pulses grew languid, only to leap firmer the 
 next moment with more desperate resolve. 
 He would win her, come what may ! He 
 could never have been in earnest before : he 
 loathed and hated himself for his previous 
 passive acquiescence to her fate. He had 
 been a weak tool of the colonel s from the 
 first : he was even now handicapped by a 
 preposterous promise he had given him ! 
 Yes, she was right to hesitate to question 
 his ability to make her happy ! He had 
 found her here, surrounded by stupidity and 
 cupidity to give it no other name so pa 
 tent that she was the common gossip, and 
 had offered nothing but a boyish declaration ! 
 As he strode into the hotel that night it 
 was well that he did not meet the unfortu 
 nate colonel on the staircase ! 
 
198 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 It was very late, although there was still 
 visible a light in Yerba s salon, shining on 
 her balcony, which extended before and in 
 cluded his own window. From time to time 
 he could hear the murmur of voices. It was 
 too late to avail himself of the invitation 
 to join them, even if his frame of mind had 
 permitted it. He was too nervous and ex 
 cited to go to bed, and, without lighting his 
 candle, he opened the French window that 
 gave upon the balcony, drew a chair in the 
 recess behind the curtain, and gazed upon 
 the night. It was very quiet; the moon 
 was high, the square was sleeping in a 
 trance of checkered shadows, like a gigantic 
 chessboard, with black- foreshortened trees 
 for pawns. The click of a cavalry sabre, 
 the sound of a footfall on the pavement of 
 the distant Konigsstrasse, were distinctly au 
 dible ; a far-off railway whistle was startling 
 in its abruptness. In the midst of this calm 
 the opening of the door of the salon, with 
 the sudden uplifting of voices in the hall, 
 told Paul that Yerba s guests were leaving. 
 He heard Doiia Anna s arch accents arch 
 even to Colonel Pendleton s monotonous bari 
 tone ! Milly s high, rapid utterances, the 
 suave falsetto of Don Ca3sar, and her voice, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 199 
 
 he thought a trifle wearied, the sound of 
 retiring footsteps, and all was still again. 
 
 So still that the rhythmic beat of the dis 
 tant waltz returned to him, with a distinc- 
 tiveness that he could idly follow. He 
 thought of Rosario and the rose-breath of 
 the open windows with a strange longing, 
 and remembered the half-stifled sweetness 
 of her happy voice rising with it from the 
 veranda. Why had he ever let it pass from 
 him then and waft its fragrance elsewhere ? 
 Why What was that? 
 
 The slight turning of a latch ! The creak 
 ing of the French window of the salon, and 
 somebody had slipped softly half out on the 
 balcony. His heart stopped beating. From 
 his position in the recess of his own window* 
 with his back to the partition of the salon, 
 he could see nothing. Yet he did not dare 
 to move. For with the quickened senses of 
 a lover he felt the diffused and perfumed 
 aura of her presence, of her garments, of 
 her flesh, flow in upon him through the open 
 window, and possess his whole breathless 
 being! It was she! Like him, perhaps, 
 longing to enjoy the perfect night like 
 him, perhaps, thinking of 
 
 " So you ar-range to get rid of me ha ! 
 
200 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 lik thees ? To tur-rn me off from your heels 
 like a dog who have follow you but with 
 out a word without a a thanks 
 without a ope ! Ah ! we have ser-rved 
 you me and my sister ; we are the or- 
 range dry now we can go ! Like the old 
 shoe, we are to be flung away ! Good ! But 
 I am here again you see. I shall speak, 
 and you shall hear-r." 
 
 Don Caesar s voice alone with her ! 
 Paul gripped his chair and sat upright. 
 
 " Stop ! Stay where you are ! How 
 dared you return here ? " It was Yerba s 
 voice, on the balcony, low and distinct. 
 
 " Shut the window ! I shall speak with 
 you what you will not the world to hear." 
 
 " I prefer to keep where I am, since you 
 have crept into this room like a thief ! " 
 
 "A thief! Good!" He broke out in 
 Spanish, and, as if no longer fearful of be 
 ing overheard, had evidently drawn nearer 
 to the window. " A thief. Ha ! muy bueno 
 - but it is not /, you understand I, 
 Csesar Briones, who am the thief ! No ! It 
 is that swaggering espadachin that fan- 
 farron of a Colonel Pendleton that pat 
 tern of an official, Mr. Hathaway that 
 most beautiful heiress of the Californias, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 201 
 
 Miss Arguello that are thieves ! Yes 
 of a name, Miss Arguello of a name! 
 The name of Arguello ! " 
 
 Paul rose to his feet. 
 
 " Ah, so ! You start you turn pale 
 you flash your eyes, senora, but you think 
 you have deceived me all these years. You 
 think I did not see your game at Rosario 
 yes, even when that foolish Castro mucka- 
 cha first put that idea in your head. Who 
 furnished you the facts you wanted ? I - 
 Mother of God ! such facts I I, who knew 
 the Arguello pedigree I, who know it was 
 as impossible for you to be a daughter of 
 them as what ? let me think as as it 
 is impossible for you to be the wife of that 
 baron whom you would deceive with the 
 rest ! Ah, yes ; it was a high flight for you, 
 Mees Mees Dona Fulana a noble 
 game for you to bring down ! " 
 
 Why did she not speak ? What was she 
 doing? If she had but uttered a single 
 word of protest, of angry dismissal, Paul 
 would have flown to her side. It could not 
 be the paralysis of personal fear: the bal 
 cony was wide ; she could easily pass to the 
 end ; she could even see his open window. 
 
 " Why did I do this ? Because I loved 
 
202 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 you, senora and you knew it ! Ah ! you 
 can turn your face away now ; you can pre 
 tend to misunderstand me, as you did a mo 
 ment ago ; you can part from me now like a 
 mere acquaintance but it was not always 
 so ! No, it was you who brought me here ; 
 your eyes that smiled into mine and drove 
 home the colonel s request that I and my 
 sister should accompany you. God ! I was 
 weak then ! You smile, senora ; you think 
 you have succeeded you and your pom 
 pous colonel and your clever governor! 
 You think you have compromised me, and 
 perjured me, because of this. You are 
 wrong ! You think I dare not speak to this 
 puppet of a baron, and that I have no 
 proofs. You are wrong ! " 
 
 " And even if you can produce them, 
 what care I?" said Yerba unexpectedly, 
 yet in a voice so free from excitement and 
 passion that the weariness which Paul had 
 at first noticed seemed to be the only domi 
 nant tone. " Suppose you prove that I am 
 not an Arguello. Good ! you have yet to 
 show that a connection with any of your 
 race would be anything but a disgrace." 
 
 " Ah ! you defy me, little one ! Caramba I 
 Listen, then ! You do not know all ! When 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 203 
 
 you thought I was only helping you to fab 
 ricate your claim to the Arguellos name, 
 I was finding out who you really were ! 
 Ah ! It was not so difficult as you fondly 
 hope, sefiora. We were not all brutes and 
 fools in the early days, though we stood 
 aside to let your people run their vulgar 
 course. It was your hired bully your re 
 spected guardian this dog of an espada- 
 chin, who let out a hint of the secret with 
 a prick of his blade and a scandal. One 
 of my peon women was a servant at the con 
 vent when you were a child, and recognized 
 the woman who put you there and came to 
 see you as a friend. She overheard the 
 Mother Superior say it was your mother, 
 and saw a necklace that was left for you to 
 wear. Ah ! you begin to believe ! When 
 I had put this and that together I found 
 that Pepita could not identify you with the 
 child that she had seen. But you, senora, 
 you yourself supplied the missing proof! 
 Yes ! you supplied it with the necklace that 
 you wore that evening at Rosario, when you 
 wished to do honor to this young Hathaway 
 the guardian who had always thrown you 
 off ! Ah ! you now suspect why, perhaps ! 
 It was your mother s necklace that you 
 
204 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 wore, and you said so ! That night I sent 
 the good Pepita to identify it ; to watch 
 through the window from the garden when 
 you were wearing it ; to make it sure as the 
 Creed. I sent her to your room late that 
 night when you had changed your dress, that 
 she might examine it among your jewels. 
 And she did and will swear look you ! 
 swear that it is the one given you as a child 
 by the woman at the convent, who was your 
 mother ! And who was that woman eh ? 
 Who was the mother of the Arguello de la 
 Yerba Buena? who this noble ances 
 tress?" 
 
 "Excuse me but perhaps you are not 
 aware that you are raising your voice in a 
 lady s drawing-room, and that although you 
 are speaking a language no one here under 
 stands, you are disturbing the hotel." 
 
 It was Paul, quiet, pale in the moonlight, 
 erect on the balcony before the window. As 
 Yerba, with a start, retreated quickly into 
 the room, Don CaBsar stepped forward an 
 grily and suspiciously towards the window. 
 He had his hand reached forward towards 
 the handle as if to close the swinging sash 
 against the intruder, when in an instant he 
 was seized by Paul, tightly locked in a des- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 205 
 
 perate grip, and whirled out on the balcony. 
 Before he could gain breath to utter a cry, 
 Hathaway had passed his right arm around 
 the Mexican s throat, effectively stopping 
 his utterance, and, with a supreme effort of 
 strength, dragged him along the wall, fall 
 ing with him into the open window of his 
 own room. As he did so, to his inexpres 
 sible relief he heard the sash closed and the 
 bolt drawn of the salon window, and re 
 gained his feet, collected, quiet, and trium 
 phant. 
 
 " I am sorry," he said, coolly dusting his 
 clothes, " to have been obliged to change 
 the scene of this discussion so roughly, but 
 you will observe that you can speak more 
 freely here, and that any altercation we may 
 have in this room will be less likely to at 
 tract comment." 
 
 " Assassin ! " said Don Cassar chokingly, 
 as he struggled to his feet. 
 
 "Thank you. Relieve your feelings as 
 much as you like here ; in fact, if you would 
 speak a little louder you would oblige me. 
 The guests are beginning to be awake," con 
 tinued Paul, with a wicked smile, indicat 
 ing the noise of an opening door and foot 
 steps in the passage, " and are now able to 
 
206 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 locate without difficulty the scene of the dis 
 turbance." 
 
 Briones apparently understood his mean 
 ing and the success of his stratagem. " You 
 think you have saved her from disgrace," 
 he said, with a livid smile, in a lower tone 
 and a desperate attempt to imitate Paul s 
 coolness. " For the present ah yees ! 
 perhaps in this hotel and this evening. But 
 you have not stop my mouth for a to 
 morrow and the whole world, Mr. Hath 
 away." 
 
 " Well," said Paul, looking at him criti 
 cally, " I don t know about that. Of course, 
 there s the equal chance that you may kill 
 me but that s a question for to-morrow, 
 too." 
 
 The Mexican cast a quick glance at the 
 door and window. Paul, as if carelessly, 
 changed the key of the former from one 
 pocket to the other, and stepped before the 
 window. 
 
 " So this is a plot to murder me ! Have 
 a care I You are not in your own brigand 
 California ! " 
 
 " If you think so, alarm the house. They 
 will find us quarreling, and you will only 
 precipitate matters by receiving the insult 
 that will make you fight before them." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 207 
 
 " I am r-ready, sir, when and where you 
 will," said Briones, with a swaggering air 
 but a shifting, furtive eye. " Open a 
 the door." 
 
 " Pardon me. We will leave this room 
 together in an hour for the station. We 
 will board the night express that will take 
 us in three hours beyond the frontier, where 
 we can each find a friend." 
 
 "But my affairs here my sister I must 
 see her." 
 
 " You shall write a note to her at that 
 table, saying that important business a 
 dispatch has called you away, and we 
 will leave it with the porter to be delivered 
 in the morning. Or I do not restrict you 
 you can say what you like, provided she 
 don t get it until we have left." 
 
 " And you make of me a prisoner, sir ? " 
 
 " No ; a visitor, Don Caesar a visitor 
 whose conversation is so interesting that I 
 am forced to detain him to hear more. You 
 can pass the time pleasantly by finishing 
 the story I was obliged to interrupt a mo 
 ment ago. Do you know this mother of 
 Miss Yerba, of whom you spoke? " 
 
 " That s m my affair." 
 
 "That means you don t know her. If 
 
208 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 you did, you d have had her within call. 
 And, as she is the only person who is able 
 to say that Miss Yerba is not an Arguello, 
 you have been very remiss." 
 
 " Ah, bah ! I am not one of your a 
 lawyers." 
 
 "No; or you would know that, with no 
 better evidence than you have, you might be 
 sued for slander." 
 
 " Ah ! Why does not Miss Yerba sue, 
 then ? " 
 
 " Because she probably expects that some 
 body will shoot you." 
 
 " As you for instance ? " 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " And if you do not eh ? you have 
 not stop my mouth, but your own. And if 
 you do, you help her to marry the Baron, 
 your rival. You are not wise, friend Hath 
 away." 
 
 44 May I remind you that you have not 
 yet written to your sister, and you may pre 
 fer to do it carefully and deliberately ? " 
 
 Don Caesar arose with a vindictive glance 
 at Paul, and pulled a chair before the table, 
 as the latter placed pen, ink, and paper be 
 fore him. "Take your time," he added, 
 folding his arms and walking towards the 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 209 
 
 window. " Say what you like, and don t let 
 my presence restrain you." 
 
 The Mexican began to write furiously, 
 then spasmodically, then slowly and reluc 
 tantly. " I war-r-n you, I shall expose all," 
 he said suddenly. 
 
 " As you please." 
 
 " And shall say that if I disappear, you 
 are my murderer you understand my 
 murderer /" 
 
 " Don t consult me on a question of epi 
 thets, but go on." 
 
 Don Caesar recommenced his writing with 
 a malign smile. There was a sudden sharp 
 rap at the door. 
 
 Don Caesar leaped to his feet, grasped his 
 papers, and rushed to the door; but Paul 
 was before him. "Who is there?" he de 
 manded. 
 
 " Pendleton." 
 
 At the sound of the colonel s voice Don 
 Caesar fell back. Paul opened the door, ad 
 mitted the tall figure of the colonel, and 
 was about to turn the key again. But Pen 
 dleton lifted his hand in grim deprecation, 
 
 "That will do, Mr. Hathaway. I know 
 all. But I wish to speak with Briones else 
 where, alone." 
 
210 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " Excuse me, Colonel Pendleton," said 
 Paul firmly, " but I have the prior claim. 
 Words have passed between this gentleman 
 and myself which we are now on our way to 
 the station and the frontier to settle. If 
 you are willing to accompany us, I shall 
 give you every opportunity to converse with 
 him alone, and arrange whatever business 
 you may have with him, provided it does 
 not interfere with mine." 
 
 " My business," said Pendleton, " is of a 
 personal nature, that will not interfere with 
 any claim of yours that Mr. Briones may 
 choose to admit, but is of a private quality 
 that must be transacted between us now." 
 His face was pale, and his voice, although 
 steady and self -controlled, had that same 
 strange suggestion of sudden age in it which 
 Paul had before noticed. Whether Don 
 Caesar detected it, or whether he had some 
 other instinctive appreciation of greater se 
 curity, Paul could not tell. He seemed to 
 recover his swagger again, as he said, 
 
 " I shall hear what Colonel Pendleton has 
 to say first. But I shall hold myself in 
 readiness to meet you afterwards you 
 shall not fear, sir ! " 
 
 Paul remained looking from the one to 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 211 
 
 the other without speaking. It was Don 
 Caesar who returned his glance boldly and 
 defiantly, Colonel Pendleton who, with thin 
 white fingers pulling his moustache, evaded 
 it. Then Paul unlocked the door, and said 
 slowly, " In five minutes I leave this house 
 for the station. I shall wait there until the 
 train arrives. If this gentleman does not 
 join me, I shall be better able to understand 
 all this and take measures accordingly." 
 
 "And I tell to you, Meester Hathaway, 
 sir," said Don Caesar, striking an attitude 
 in the doorway, " you shall do as I please 
 Oaramba ! and shall beg " 
 
 " Hold your tongue, sir or, by the 
 Eternal ! " burst out Pendleton suddenly, 
 bringing down his thin hand on the Mexi 
 can s shoulder. He stopped as suddenly. 
 " Gentlemen, this is childish. Go, sir ! " 
 to Don Caesar, pointing with a gaunt white 
 finger into the darkened hall. " I will fol 
 low you. Mr. Hathaway, as an older man, 
 and one who has seen a good deal of foolish 
 altercation, I regret, sir, deeply regret, to 
 be a witness to this belligerent quality in a 
 law-maker and a public man ; and I must 
 deprecate, sir deprecate, your demand on 
 that gentleman for what, in the folly of 
 
212 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 youth, you are pleased to call personal satis 
 faction." 
 
 As he moved with dignity out of the 
 room, Paul remained blankly staring after 
 him. Was it all a dream ? or was this 
 Colonel Pendleton the duelist? Had the 
 old man gone crazy, or was he merely acting 
 to veil some wild purpose ? His sudden ar 
 rival showed that Yerba must have sent for 
 him and told him of Don Csesar s threats ; 
 would he be wild enough to attempt to 
 strangle the man in some remote room or in 
 the darkness of the passage? He stepped 
 softly into the hall : he could still hear the 
 double tread of the two men : they had 
 reached the staircase they were descend 
 ing ! He heard the drowsy accents of the 
 night porter and the swinging of the door 
 they were in the street ! 
 
 Wherever they were going, or for what 
 purpose, he must be at the station, as he 
 had warned them he would be. He hastily 
 threw a few things into his valise, and pre 
 pared to follow them. When he went down 
 stairs he informed the porter that owing to 
 an urgent call of business he should try to 
 catch the through express at three o clock, 
 but they must retain his room and luggage 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 213 
 
 until they heard from him. He remem 
 bered Don Caesar s letter. Had either of 
 the gentlemen, his friends who had just 
 gone out, left a letter or message ? No, Ex 
 cellency ; the gentlemen were talking ear 
 nestly he believed, in the South American 
 language and had not spoken to him. 
 
 Perhaps it was this that reminded Paul, 
 as he crossed the square again, that he had 
 made no preparation for any possible fatal 
 issue to himself in this adventure. She 
 would know it, however, and why he had 
 undertaken it. He tried to think that per 
 haps some interest in himself had prompted 
 her to send the colonel to him. Yet, min 
 gled with this was an odd sense of a certain 
 ridiculousness in his position : there was the 
 absurdity of his prospective antagonist be 
 ing even now in confidential consultation 
 with his own friend and ally, whose func 
 tions he had usurped, and in whose interests 
 he was about to risk his life. And as he 
 walked away through the silent streets, the 
 conviction more than once was forced upon 
 him that he was going to an appointment 
 that would not be kept. 
 
 He reached the station some ten minutes 
 before the train was due. Two or three 
 
214 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 half-drowsy, wrapped-up passengers were 
 already on the platform ; but neither Don 
 Caesar nor Colonel Pendleton was among 
 them. He explored the waiting-rooms and 
 even the half-lit buffet, but with no better 
 success. Telling the Bahnliof Inspector 
 that his passage was only contingent upon 
 the arrival of one or two companions, and 
 describing them minutely to prevent mis 
 takes, he began gloomily to pace before the 
 ticket-office. Five minutes passed the 
 number of passengers did not increase ; ten 
 minutes ; a distant shriek the hoarse in 
 quiry of the inspector had the Herr s 
 companions yet gekommt ? the sudden glare 
 of a Cyclopean eye in the darkness, the on- 
 gliding of the long-jointed and gleaming 
 spotted serpent, the train a hurried glance 
 around the platform, one or two guttural 
 orders, the slamming of doors, the remount 
 ing of black uniformed figures like caryati 
 des along the marchepicds, a puff of vapor, 
 and the train had come and gone without 
 them. 
 
 Yet he would give his adversary fifteen 
 minutes more to allow for accident or de 
 lay, or the possible arrival of the colonel 
 with an explanation, and recommenced his 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 215 
 
 gloomy pacing, as the Bahnhof sank back 
 into half -lit repose. At the end of five min 
 utes there was another shriek. Paul turned 
 quickly to the inspector. Ah, then, there 
 was another train ? No ; it was only the up 
 express for Basle, going the other way and 
 stopping at the Nord Station, half a mile 
 away. It would not stop here, but the Herr 
 would see it pass in a few moments at full 
 speed. 
 
 It came presently, with a prolonged de 
 spairing shriek, out of the darkness ; a flash, 
 a rush and roar at his side, a plunge into 
 the darkness again with the same despairing 
 cry ; a flutter of something white from one 
 of the windows, like a loosened curtain, that 
 at last seemed to detach itself, and, after a 
 wild attempt to follow, suddenly soared 
 aloft, whirled over and over, dropped, and 
 drifted slowly, slantwise, to the ground. 
 
 The inspector had seen it, ran down the 
 line, and picked it up. Then he returned 
 with it to Paul with a look of sympathizing 
 concern. It was a lady s handkerchief, evi 
 dently some signal waved to the well-born 
 Herr, who was the only passenger on the 
 platform. So, possibly, it might be from 
 his friends, who by some stupid mischance 
 
216 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 had gone to the wrong station, and Gott 
 im Himmel ! it was hideously stupid, yet 
 possible, got on the wrong train ! 
 
 The Herr, a little pale, but composed, 
 thought it was possible. No ; he would not 
 telegraph to the next station not yet he 
 would inquire. 
 
 He walked quickly away, reaching the 
 hotel breathlessly, yet in a space that 
 seemed all too brief for his disconnected 
 thought. There were signs of animation in 
 the hall, and an empty carriage was just 
 reentering the courtyard. The hall-porter 
 met him with demonstrative concern and 
 apology. Ah ! if he had only understood 
 his Excellency better, he could have saved 
 him all this trouble. Evidently his Excel 
 lency was going with the Arguello party, 
 who had ordered a carriage, doubtless, for 
 the same important journey, an hour before, 
 yet had left only a few moments after his 
 Excellency, and his Excellency, it would ap 
 pear, had gone to the wrong station. 
 
 Paul pushed hurriedly past the man and 
 ascended to his room. Both windows were 
 open, and in the faint moonlight he could 
 see that something white was pinned to his 
 pillow. With nervous fingers he relit his 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 217 
 
 candles, and found it was a note in Yerba s 
 handwriting. As he opened it, a tiny spray 
 of the vine that had grown on the crum 
 bling wall fell at his feet. He picked it up, 
 pressed it to his lips, and read, with dim 
 eyes, as follows : 
 
 You know now why I spoke to you as I 
 did to-day, and why the other half of this 
 precious spray is the only memory I care to 
 carry with me out of this crumbling ruin of 
 all my hopes. You were right, Paul: my 
 taking you there was an omen not to you, 
 who can never be anything but proud, be 
 loved, and true but to me of all the shame 
 and misery. Thank you for all you have 
 done for all you would do, my friend, and 
 don t think me ungrateful, only because I 
 am unworthy of it. Try to forgive me, but 
 don t forget me, even if you must hate me. 
 Perhaps, if you knew all you might still 
 love a little the poor girl to whom you have 
 already given the only name she can ever 
 take from you YERBA BUENA ! 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IT was already autumn, and in the city of 
 New York an early Sunday morning breeze 
 was sweeping up the leaves that had fallen 
 from the regularly planted ailantus trees 
 before the brown -stone frontage of a row 
 of monotonously alike five-storied houses on 
 one of the principal avenues. The Pastor 
 of the Third Presbyterian Church, that 
 uplifted its double towers on the corner, 
 stopped before one of these dwellings, ran 
 up the dozen broad steps, and rang the bell. 
 He was presently admittted to the sombre 
 richness of a hall and drawing-room with 
 high-backed furniture of dark carved woods, 
 like cathedral stalls, and, hat in hand, some 
 what impatiently awaited the arrival of his 
 hostess and parishioner. The door opened 
 to a tall, white-haired woman in lustreless 
 black silk. She was regular and resolute 
 in features, of fine but unbending presence, 
 and, though somewhat past middle age, 
 showed no signs of either the weakness or 
 mellowness of years. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 219 
 
 "I am sorry to disturb your Sabbath 
 morning meditations, Sister Argalls, nor 
 would I if it were not in the line of Chris 
 tian duty ; but Sister Robbins is unable to 
 day to make her usual Sabbath hospital 
 visit, and I thought if you were excused 
 from the Foreign Missionary class and Bible 
 instruction at three you might undertake 
 her functions. I know, my dear old friend," 
 he continued, with bland deprecation of her 
 hard-set eyes, " how distasteful this promis 
 cuous mingling with the rough and ungodly 
 has always been to you, and how reluctant 
 you are to be placed in the position of be 
 ing liable to hear coarse, vulgar, or irrev 
 erent speech. I think, too, in our long and 
 pleasant pastoral relations, you have always 
 found me mindful of it. I admit I have 
 sometimes regretted that your late husband 
 had not more generally familiarized you 
 with the ways of the world. But so it is 
 we all have our weaknesses. If not one 
 thing, another. And as Envy and Unchari- 
 tableness sometimes find their way in even 
 Christian hearts, I should like you to under 
 take this office for the sake of example. 
 There are some, dear Sister Argalls, who 
 think that the rich widow who is most lib- 
 
220 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 eral in the endowment of the goods that 
 Providence has intrusted to her hands claims 
 therefore to be exempt from labor in the 
 Christian vineyard. Let us teach them how 
 unjust they are." 
 
 " I am willing," said the lady, with a dry, 
 determined air. "I suppose these patients 
 are not professedly bad characters ? " 
 
 " By no means. A few, perhaps ; but the 
 majority are unfortunates dependent either 
 upon public charity or some small provision 
 made by their friends." 
 
 " Very well." 
 
 "And you understand that though they 
 have the privilege of rejecting your Christian 
 ministrations, dear Sister Argalls, you are 
 free to judge when you may be patient or 
 importunate with them ? " 
 
 " I understand." 
 
 The Pastor was not an unkindly man, 
 and, as he glanced at the uncompromising 
 look in Mrs. Argalls s eyes, felt for a mo 
 ment some inconsistency between his hu 
 mane instincts and his Christian duty. 
 u Some of them may require, and be bene 
 fited by, a stern monitress, and Sister Rob- 
 bins, I fear, was weak," he said consolingly 
 to himself, as he descended the steps again. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 221 
 
 At three o clock Mrs. Argalls, with a 
 reticule and a few tracts, was at the door of 
 St. John s Hospital. As she displayed her 
 testimonials and announced that she had 
 taken Mrs. Robbins s place, the officials re 
 ceived her respectfully, and gave some in 
 structions to the attendants, which, however, 
 did not stop some individual comments. 
 
 " I say, Jim, it does n t seem the square 
 thing to let that grim old girl loose among 
 them poor convalescents." 
 
 " Well, I don t know : they say she s 
 rich and gives a lot o money away, but if 
 she tackles that swearing old Kentuckian in 
 No. 3, she 11 have her hands full." 
 
 However, the criticism was scarcely fair, 
 for Mrs. Argalls, although moving rigidly 
 along from bed to bed of the ward, equipped 
 with a certain formula of phrases, neverthe 
 less dropped from time to time some practi 
 cal common-sense questions that showed an 
 almost masculine intuition of the patients 
 needs and requirements. Nor did she be 
 tray any of that over-sensitive shrinking 
 from coarseness which the good Pastor had 
 feared, albeit she was quick to correct its 
 exhibition. The languid men listened to 
 her with half-aggressive, half-amused inter- 
 
222 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 est, and some of the satisfaction of taking a 
 bitter but wholesome tonic. It was not un 
 til she reached the bed at the farther end of 
 the ward that she seemed to meet with any 
 check. 
 
 It was occupied by a haggard man, with 
 a long white moustache and features that 
 seemed wasted by inward struggle and fever. 
 At the first sound of her voice he turned 
 quickly towards her, lifted himself on his 
 elbow, and gazed fixedly in her face. 
 
 " Kate Howard by the Eternal ! " he 
 said, in a low voice. 
 
 Despite her rigid self-possession the wo 
 man started, glanced hurriedly around, and 
 drew nearer to him. 
 
 " Pendleton ! " she said, in an equally 
 suppressed voice. " What, in God s name, 
 are you doing here ? " 
 
 " Dying, I reckon sooner or later," he 
 said grimly, " that s what they do here." 
 
 " But what," she went on hurriedly, 
 still glancing oVer her shoulder as if she 
 suspected some trick " what has brought 
 you to this?" 
 
 " You ! " said the colonel, dropping back 
 exhaustedly on his pillow. " You and your 
 daughter." 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 223 
 
 " I don t understand you," she said 
 quickly, yet regarding him with stern rigid 
 ity. " You know perfectly well I have no 
 daughter. You know perfectly well that 
 I ve kept the word I gave you ten years 
 ago, and that I have been dead to her as 
 she has been to me." 
 
 " I know," said the colonel, " that within 
 the last three months I have paid away my 
 last cent to keep the mouth of an infernal 
 scoundrel shut who knows that you are her 
 mother, and threatens to expose her to her 
 friends. I know that I m dying here of 
 an old wound that I got when I shut the 
 mouth of another hound who was ready to 
 bark at her two years after you disappeared. 
 I know that between you and her I ve let 
 my old nigger die of a broken heart, because 
 I could n t keep him to suffer with me, and 
 I know that I m here a pauper on the 
 State. I know that, Kate, and when I say 
 it I don t regret it. I Ve kept my word to 
 you, and, by the Eternal, your daughter s 
 worth it ! For if there ever was a fair and 
 peerless creature it s your child ! " 
 
 "And she a rich woman unless she 
 squandered the fortune I gave her lets 
 you lie here ! " said the woman grimly. 
 
224 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " She don t know it." 
 
 " She should know it ! Have you quar 
 reled ? " She was looking at him keenly. 
 
 "She distrusts me, because she half sus 
 pects the secret, and I had n t the heart to 
 tell her all." 
 
 "All? What does she know? What 
 does this man know ? What has been told 
 her ? " she said rapidly. 
 
 " She only knows that the name she has 
 taken she has no right to." 
 
 " Right to ? Why, it was written on the 
 Trust Yerba Buena." 
 
 "No, not that. She thought it was a 
 mistake. She took the name of Arguello." 
 
 "What?" said Mrs. Argalls, suddenly 
 grasping the invalid s wrist with both hands. 
 " What name ? " Her eyes were startled 
 from their rigid coldness, her lips were col 
 orless. jr 
 
 "Arguello! It was some foolish school 
 girl fancy which that hound helped to foster 
 in her. Why what s the matter, Kate ? " 
 
 The woman dropped the helpless man s 
 wrist, then, with an effort, recovered herself 
 sufficiently to rise, and, with an air of in 
 creased decorum, as if the spiritual charac 
 ter of their interview excluded worldly in- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 225 
 
 trusion, adjusted the screen around his bed, 
 so as partly to hide her own face and Pendle- 
 ton s. Then, dropping into the chair beside 
 him, she said, in her old voice, from which 
 the burden of ten long years seemed to have 
 been lifted, 
 
 44 Harry, what s that you re playing on 
 me?" 
 
 " I don t understand you," said Pendleton 
 amazedly. 
 
 " Do you mean to say you don t know it, 
 and did n t tell her yourself ? " she said 
 curtly. 
 
 "What? Tell her what?" he repeated 
 impatiently. 
 
 " That Arguello was her father ! " 
 
 "Her father?" He tried to struggle to 
 his elbow again, but she laid her hand mas 
 terfully upon his shoulder and forced him 
 back. " Her father ! " he repeated hur 
 riedly. " Jose Arguello ! Great God ! 
 are you sure ? " 
 
 Quietly and yet mechanically gathering 
 the scattered tracts from the coverlet, and 
 putting them back, one by one in her reti 
 cule, she closed it and her lips with a snap 
 as she uttered " Yes." 
 
 Pendleton remained staring at her si- 
 
226 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 lently, " Yes," he muttered, " it may have 
 been some instinct of the child s, or some 
 diabolical fancy of Briones . But," he said 
 bitterly, " true or not, she has no right to 
 his name." 
 
 " And I say she has" 
 
 She had risen to her feet, with her arms 
 folded across her breast, in an attitude of 
 such Puritan composure that the distant 
 spectators might have thought she was de 
 livering an exordium to the prostrate man. 
 
 "I met Jose Arguello, for the second 
 time, in New Orleans," she said slowly, 
 " eight years ago. He was still rich, but 
 ruined in health by dissipation. I was tired 
 of my way of life. He proposed that I 
 should marry him to take care of him and 
 legitimatize our child. I was forced to tell 
 him what I had done with her, and that 
 the Trust could not be disturbed until she 
 was of age and her own mistress. He as 
 sented. We married, but he died within a 
 year. He died, leaving with me his acknow 
 ledgment of her as his child, and the right 
 to claim her if I chose." 
 
 " And ? " interrupted the colonel with 
 sparkling eyes. 
 
 " / don t choose. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 227 
 
 " Hear me ! " she continued firmly. " With 
 his name and my own mistress, and the girl, 
 as I believed, properly provided for and ig. 
 norant of my existence, I saw no necessity 
 for reopening the past. I resolved to lead a 
 new life as his widow. I came north. In 
 the little New England town where I first 
 stopped, the country people contracted my 
 name to Mrs. Argalls. I let it stand so. I 
 came to New York and entered the service 
 of the Lord and the bonds of the Church, 
 Henry Pendleton, as Mrs. Argalls, and have 
 remained so ever since." 
 
 " But you would not object to Yerba 
 knowing that you lived, and rightly bore her 
 father s name ? " said Pendleton eagerly. 
 
 The woman looked at him with com 
 pressed lips. " I should. I have buried all 
 my past, and all its consequences. Let me 
 not seek to reopen it or recall them." 
 
 " But if you knew that she was as proud 
 as yourself, and that this very uncertainty 
 as to her name and parentage, although she 
 has never known the whole truth, kept her 
 from taking the name and becoming the 
 wife of a man whom she loves ? " 
 
 "Whom she loves!" 
 
 " Yes ; one of her guardians Hathaway 
 
228 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 to whom you intrusted her when she was 
 a child." 
 
 " Paul Hathaway but he knew it." 
 
 " Yes. But she does not know he does. 
 He has kept the secret faithfully, even when 
 she refused him." 
 
 She was silent for a moment, and then 
 said, 
 
 " So be it. I consent." 
 
 " And you 11 write to her ? " said the 
 colonel eagerly. 
 
 " No. But you may, and if you want 
 them I will furnish you with such proofs as 
 you may require." 
 
 "Thank you." He held out his hand 
 with such a happy yet childish gratitude 
 upon his worn face that her own trembled 
 slightly as she took it. " Good-by ! " 
 
 " I shall see you soon," she said. 
 
 " I shall be here," He said grimly. 
 
 " I think not," she returned, with the first 
 relaxation of her smileless face, and moved 
 away. 
 
 As she passed out she asked to see the 
 house surgeon. How soon did he think the 
 patient she had been conversing with could 
 be removed from the hospital with safety ? 
 Did Mrs. Argalls mean "far?" Mrs. Ar- 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 229 
 
 galls meant as far as that tendering her 
 card and eminently respectable address. 
 Ah ! perhaps in a week. Not before ? 
 Perhaps before, unless complications en 
 sued ; the patient had been much run down 
 physically, though, as Mrs. Argalls had 
 probably noticed, he was singularly strong 
 in nervous will force. Mrs. Argalls had 
 noticed it, and considered it an extraordi 
 nary case of conviction worthy of the 
 closest watching and care. When he was 
 able to be moved she would send her own 
 carriage and her own physician to superin 
 tend his transfer. In the mean time he was 
 to want for nothing. Certainly, he had 
 given very little trouble, and, in fact, wanted 
 very little. Just now he had only asked for 
 paper, pens, and ink. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 As Mrs. Argalls s carriage rolled into 
 Fifth Avenue, it for a moment narrowly 
 grazed another carriage, loaded with lug 
 gage, driving up to a hotel. The abstracted 
 traveler within it was Paul Hathaway, who 
 had returned from Europe that morning. 
 
 Paul entered the hotel, and, going to the 
 register mechanically, turned its leaves for 
 the previous arrivals, with the same hope 
 less patience that had for the last six weeks 
 accompanied this habitual preliminary per 
 formance on his arrival at the principal Eu 
 ropean hotels. For he had lost all trace of 
 Yerba, Pendleton, Milly, and the Briones 
 from the day of their departure. The en 
 tire party seemed to have separated at 
 Basle, and, in that eight-hours start they 
 had of him, to have disappeared to the four 
 cardinal points. He had lingered a few 
 days in London to transact some business ; 
 he would linger a few days longer in New 
 York before returning to San Francisco. 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 231 
 
 The daily papers already contained his 
 name in the list of the steamer passengers 
 who arrived that morning. It might meet 
 her eye, although he had been haunted dur 
 ing the voyage by a terrible fancy that she 
 was still in Europe, and had either hidden 
 herself in some obscure provincial town with 
 the half-crazy Pendleton, or had entered a 
 convent, or even, in reckless despair, had 
 accepted the name and title of some penni 
 less nobleman. It was this miserable doubt 
 that had made his homeward journey at 
 times seem like a cruel desertion of her, 
 while at other moments the conviction that 
 Milly s Californian relatives might give him 
 some clew to her whereabouts made him fe 
 verishly fearful of delaying an hour on his 
 way to San Francisco. He did not believe 
 that she had tolerated the company of 
 Briones a single moment after the scene at 
 the Bad Hof, and yet he had no confidence 
 in the colonel s attitude towards the Mexi 
 can. Hopeless of the future as her letter 
 seemed, still its naive and tacit confession 
 of her feelings at the moment was all that 
 sustained him. 
 
 Two days passed, and he still lingered 
 aimlessly in New York. In two days more 
 
232 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 the Panama steamer would sail yet in his 
 hesitation he had put off securing his pas 
 sage. He visited the offices of the different 
 European steamer lines, and examined the 
 recent passenger lists, but there was no rec 
 ord of any of the party. What made his 
 quest seem the more hopeless was his belief 
 that, after Briones revelation, she had cast 
 off the name of Arguello and taken some 
 other. She might even be in New York 
 under that new name now. 
 
 On the morning of the third day, among 
 his letters was one that bore the postmark 
 of a noted suburban settlement of wealthy 
 villa-owners on the Hudson River. It was 
 from Milly Woods, stating that her father 
 had read of his arrival in the papers, and 
 begged he would dine and stay the next 
 night with them at " Under Cliff," if he 
 " still had any interest in the fortunes of 
 old friends. Of course," added the peren 
 nially incoherent Milly, " if it bores you we 
 sha n t expect you." The quick color came 
 to Paul s careworn cheek. He telegraphed 
 assent, and at sunset that afternoon stepped 
 off the train at a little private woodland 
 station so abnormally rustic and pictur 
 esque in its brown-bark walls covered with 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 233 
 
 scarlet Virginia creepers that it looked like 
 a theatrical erection. 
 
 Mr. Woods s station wagon was in wait 
 ing, but Paul, handing the driver his valise, 
 and ascertaining the general direction of 
 the house, and that it was not far distant, 
 told him to go on and he would follow 
 afoot. The tremor of vague anticipation 
 had already come upon him ; something that 
 he knew not whether he feared or longed 
 for, only that it was inevitable, had begun 
 to possess him. He would soon recover him 
 self in the flaring glory of this woodland, 
 and the invigoration of this hale October 
 air. 
 
 It was a beautiful and brilliant sunset, 
 yet not so beautiful and brilliant but that 
 the whole opulent forest around him seemed 
 to challenge and repeat its richest as well as 
 its most delicate dyes. The reddening west, 
 seen through an opening of scarlet maples, 
 was no longer red ; the golden glory of the 
 sun, sinking over a promontory of gleaming 
 yellow sumach that jutted out into the noble 
 river, was shorn of its intense radiance ; at 
 times in the thickest woods he seemed sur 
 rounded by a yellow nimbus ; at times so 
 luminous was the glow of these translucent 
 
234 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 leaves that the position of the sun itself 
 seemed changed, or the shadows cast in de 
 fiance of its glory. As he walked on, long 
 reaches of the lordly placid stream at his 
 side were visible, as far as the terraces of 
 the opposite shore, lifted on basaltic col 
 umns, themselves streaked and veined with 
 gold and fire. Paul had seen nothing like 
 this since his boyhood; for an instant the 
 great heroics of the Sierran landscape were 
 forgotten in this magnificent harlequinade. 
 
 A dim footpath crossed the road in the 
 direction of the house, which for the last 
 few moments had been slowly etching itself 
 as a soft vignette in a tinted aureole of wal 
 nut and maple upon the steel blue of the 
 river. He was hesitating whether to take 
 this short cut or continue on by the road, 
 when he heard the rustling of quick foot 
 steps among the fallen leaves of the varie 
 gated thicket through which it stole. He 
 stopped short, the leafy screen shivered and 
 parted, and a tall graceful figure, like a 
 draped and hidden Columbine, burst through 
 its painted foliage. It was Yerba ! 
 
 She ran quickly towards him, with parted 
 lips, shining eyes, and a few scarlet leaves 
 clinging to the stnff of her worsted dress in 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 235 
 
 a way that recalled the pink petals of Ro- 
 sario. 
 
 " When I saw you were not in the wagon 
 and knew you were walking I slipped out to 
 intercept you, as I had something to tell 
 you before you saw the others. I thought 
 you wouldn t mind." She stopped, and 
 suddenly hesitated. 
 
 What was this new strange shyness that 
 seemed to droop her eyelids, her proud head, 
 and even the slim hand that had been so 
 impulsively and frankly outstretched to 
 wards him ? And he Paul what was 
 he doing? Where was this passionate out 
 burst that had filled his heart for nights and 
 days? Where this eager tumultuous ques 
 tioning that his feverish lips had rehearsed 
 hour by hour ? Where this desperate cour 
 age that would sweep the whole world away 
 if it stood between them ? Where, indeed ? 
 He was standing only a few feet from her 
 cold, silent, and tremulous ! 
 
 She drew back a step, lifted her head 
 with a quick toss that seemed to condense 
 the moisture in her shining eyes, and sent 
 what might have been a glittering dew-drop 
 flying into the loosed tendrils of her hair. 
 Calm and erect again, she put her little 
 hand to her jacket pocket. 
 
236 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 " I only wanted you to read a letter I got 
 yesterday," she said, taking out an envel 
 ope. 
 
 The spell was broken. Paul caught 
 eagerly at the hand that held the letter, 
 and would have drawn her to him ; but she 
 put him aside gravely but sweetly. 
 
 " Kead that letter ! " 
 
 " Tell me of yourself first ! " he broke 
 out passionately. " Why you fled from me, 
 and why I now find you here, by the merest 
 chance, without a word of summons from 
 yourself, Yerba ? Tell me who is with you ? 
 Are you free and your own mistress free 
 to act for yourself and me? Speak, dar 
 ling don t be cruel! Since that night I 
 have longed for you, sought for you, and 
 suffered for you every day and hour. Tell 
 me if I find you the same Yerba who 
 wrote " * . 
 
 " Read that letter ! " 
 
 " I care for none but the one you left me. 
 I have read and reread it, Yerba carried 
 it always with me. See ! I have it here ! " 
 He was in the act of withdrawing it from 
 his breast-pocket, when she put up her hand 
 piteously. 
 
 "Please, Paul, please read this letter 
 first!" 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 237 
 
 There was something in her new suppli 
 cating grace, still retaining the faintest sug 
 gestion of her old girlish archness, that 
 struck him. He took the letter and opened 
 it. It was from Colonel Pendleton. 
 
 Plainly, concisely, and formally, without 
 giving the name of his authority or suggest 
 ing his interview with Mrs. Argalls, he had 
 informed Yerba that he had documentary 
 testimony that she was the daughter of the 
 late Jose de Arguello, and legally entitled 
 to bear his name. A copy of the instruc 
 tions given to his wife, recognizing Yerba 
 Buena, the ward of the San Francisco Trust, 
 as his child and hers, and leaving to the 
 mother the choice of making it known to 
 her and others, was inclosed. 
 
 Paul turned an unchanged face upon 
 Yerba, who was watching him eagerly, un 
 easily, almost breathlessly. 
 
 " And you think this concerns me!" he 
 said bitterly. " You think only of this, 
 when I speak of the precious letter that 
 bade me hope, and brought me to you ? " 
 
 " Paul," said the girl, with wondering 
 eyes and hesitating lips ; " do you mean to 
 say that that this is nothing to you?" 
 
 " Yes but forgive me, darling ! " he 
 
238 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 broke out again, with a sudden vague re- 
 morsefulness, as he once more sought her 
 elusive hand. " I am a brute an egotist ! 
 I forgot that it might be something to you" 
 
 " Paul," continued the girl, her voice quiv 
 ering with a strange joy, " do you say that 
 you you yourself, care nothing for this ? " 
 
 "Nothing," he answered, gazing at her 
 transfigured face with admiring wonder. 
 
 " And " more timidly, as a faint aurora 
 kindled in her cheeks " that you don t 
 care that that I am coming to you 
 with a name, to give you in exchange ? " 
 
 He started. 
 
 " Yerba, you are not mocking me ? You 
 will be my wife ? " 
 
 She smiled, yet moving softly backwards 
 with the grave stateliness of a vanishing yet 
 beckoning goddess, until she reached the 
 sumach-bush from which she had emerged. 
 He followed. Another backward step, and 
 it yielded to let her through ; but even as it 
 did so she caught him in her arms, and for 
 a single moment it closed upon them both, 
 and hid them in its glory. A still lingering 
 song-bird, possibly convinced that he had 
 mistaken the season, and that spring had 
 really come, flew out with a little cry to 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 239 
 
 carry the message south ; but even then 
 Paul and Yerba emerged with such inno 
 cent, childlike gravity, and, side by side, 
 walked so composedly towards the house, 
 that he thought better of it. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IT was only the third time they had ever 
 met did Paul consider that when he 
 thought her cold ? Did he know now why 
 she had not understood him at Rosario? 
 Did he understand now how calculating and 
 selfish he had seemed to her that night? 
 Could he look her in the face now no, 
 he must be quiet they were so near the 
 house, and everybody could see them ! and 
 say that he had ever believed her capable 
 of making up that story of the Arguel- 
 los? Could he not have guessed that she 
 had some memory of that name in her child 
 ish recollections, how or where she knew 
 not? Was it strange that a daughter 
 should have an instinct of her father ? Was 
 it kind to her to know all this himself and 
 yet reveal nothing ? Because her mother 
 and father had quarreled, and her mother 
 had run away with somebody and left her a 
 ward to strangers was that to be concealed 
 from her, and she left without a name ? 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 241 
 
 This, and much more, tenderly reproachful, 
 bewildering and sweetly illogical, yet inex 
 pressibly dear to Paul, as they walked on in 
 the gloaming. 
 
 More to the purpose, however, the fact 
 that Briones, as far as she knew, did not 
 know her mother, and never before the night 
 at Strudle Bad had ever spoken of her. 
 Still more to the purpose, that he had dis 
 appeared after an interview with the colonel 
 that night, and that she believed always 
 that the colonel had bought him off. It 
 was not with her money. She had some 
 times thought that the colonel and he were 
 in confidence, and that was why she had 
 lately distrusted Pendleton. But she had 
 refused to take the name of Arguello again 
 after that scene, and had called herself only 
 by the name he had given her would he 
 forgive her for ever speaking of it as she 
 had ? Yerba Buena. But on shipboard, 
 at Milly s suggestion, and to keep away 
 from Briones, her name had appeared on 
 the passenger list as Miss Good> and they 
 had come, not to New York, but Boston. 
 
 It was possible that the colonel had ex 
 tracted the information he sent her from 
 Briones. They had parted from Pendleton 
 
242 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 in London, as lie was grumpy and queer, 
 and, as Milly thought, becoming very mi 
 serly and avaricious as he grew older, for he 
 was always quarreling over the hotel bills. 
 But he had Mrs. Woods s New York address 
 at Under Cliff, and, of course, guessed where 
 she was. There was no address on his let 
 ter : he had said he would write again. 
 
 Thus much until they reached the steps 
 of the veranda, and Milly, flying down, was 
 ostentatiously overwhelmed with the unex 
 pected appearance of Mr. Paul Hathaway 
 and Yerba, whom she had been watching 
 from the window for the last ten minutes. 
 Then the appearance of Mr. Woods, Cali- 
 fornian and reminiscent, and Mrs. Woods, 
 metropolitan, languid, and forgetful, and 
 the sudden and formal retirement of the 
 girls. An arch and indefinable mystery in 
 the air whenever Paul and Yerba appeared 
 together of which even the servants were 
 discreetly conscious. 
 
 At dinner Mr.- Woods again became ret 
 rospective and Calif ornian, and dwelt upon 
 the changes he had noticed. It appeared 
 the old pioneers had in few cases attained a 
 comfortable fortune for their old age. "I 
 know," he added, " that your friend Colonel 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 243 
 
 Penclleton has dropped a good deal of money 
 over in Europe. Somebody told me that he 
 actually was reduced to take a steerage pas 
 sage home. It looks as if he might gamble 
 it s an old Californian complaint." As 
 Paul, who had become suddenly grave again, 
 did not speak, Mrs. Woods reminded them 
 that she had always doubted the colonel s 
 moral principles. Old as he was, he had 
 never got over that freedom of life and so 
 cial opinion which he had imbibed in early 
 days. For her part, she was very glad he 
 had not returned from Europe with the 
 girls, though, of course, the presence of Don 
 Csesar and his sister during their European 
 sojourn was a corrective. As Paul s face 
 grew darker during this languid criticism, 
 Yerba, who had been watching it with a 
 new and absorbing sympathy, seized the first 
 moment when they left the table to inter 
 rogate him with heartbreaking eyes. 
 
 " You don t think, Paul, that the colonel 
 is really poor ? " 
 
 " God only knows," said Paul. " I trem 
 ble to think how that scoundrel may have 
 bled him." 
 
 " And all for me ! Paul, dear, you know 
 you were saying in the woods that you would 
 
244 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 never, never touch my money. What " 
 exultingly " if we gave it to him ? " 
 
 What answer Paul made did not trans 
 pire, for it seemed to have been indicated 
 by an interval of profound silence. 
 
 But the next morning, as he and Mr. 
 Woods were closeted in the library, Yerba 
 broke in upon them with a pathetic face 
 and a telegram in her hand. " Oh, Paul 
 Mr. Hathaway it 9 s true ! " 
 
 Paul seized the telegram quickly : it had 
 no signature, only the line : " Colonel Pen- 
 dleton is dangerously ill at St. John s Hos 
 pital." 
 
 " I must go at once," said Paul, rising. 
 
 " Oh, Paul " imploringly " let me go 
 with you! I should never forgive myself 
 if and it s addressed to me, and what 
 would he think if I did n t come ? " 
 
 Paul hesitated. ," Mrs. Woods will let 
 Milly go with us and she can stay at the 
 hotel. Say yes," she continued, seeking his 
 eyes eagerly. 
 
 He consented, and in half an hour they 
 were in the train for New York. Leaving 
 Milly at the hotel, ostensibly in deference 
 to the Woods s prejudices, but really to 
 save the presence of a third party at this 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 245 
 
 meeting, Paul drove with Yerba rapidly to 
 the hospital. They were admitted to an 
 anteroom. The house surgeon received 
 them respectfully, but doubtingly. The pa 
 tient was a little better this morning, but 
 very weak. There was a lady now with him 
 a member of a religious and charitable 
 guild, who had taken the greatest interest in 
 him indeed, she had wished to take him 
 to her own home but he had declined at 
 first, and now he was too weak to be re 
 moved. 
 
 " But I received this telegram : it must 
 have been sent at his request," protested 
 Yerba. 
 
 The house surgeon looked at the beauti 
 ful face. He was mortal. He would see if 
 the patient was able to stand another inter 
 view ; possibly the regular visitor might 
 withdraw. 
 
 When he had gone, an attendant volun 
 teered the information that the old gentle 
 man was perhaps a little excited at times. 
 He was a wonderful man ; he had seen a 
 great deal ; he talked much of California 
 and the early days ; he was very interesting. 
 Ah, it would be all right now if the doctor 
 found him well enough, for the lady was al- 
 
246 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 ready going that was she, coming through 
 the hall. 
 
 She came slowly towards them erect, 
 gray, grim a still handsome apparition. 
 Paul started. To his horror, Yerba ran im 
 pulsively forward, and said eagerly : " Is he 
 better ? Can he see us now ? " 
 
 The woman halted an instant, seemed to 
 gather the prayer-book and reticule she was 
 carrying closer to her breast, but was other 
 wise unchanged. Keplying to Paul rather 
 than the young girl, she said rigidly : " The 
 patient is able to see Mr. Hathaway and 
 Miss Yerba Buena," and passed slowly on. 
 But as she reached the door she unloosed 
 her black mourning veil from her bonnet, 
 and seemed to drop it across her face with 
 the gesture that Paul remembered she had 
 used twelve years ago. 
 
 " She frightens me ! " said Yerba, turn 
 ing a suddenly startled face on Paul. " Oh, 
 Paul, I hope it isn t an omen, but she 
 looked like some one from the grave ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Paul, turning away a face 
 that was whiter than her own. " They are 
 coming now." 
 
 The house surgeon had returned a trifle 
 graver. They might see him now, but they 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 247 
 
 must be warned that he wandered at times 
 a little ; and, if he might suggest, if it was 
 anything of family importance, they had 
 better make the most of their time and his 
 lucid intervals. Perhaps if they were old 
 friends very old friends he would rec 
 ognize them. He was wandering much in 
 the past always in the past. 
 
 They found him in the end of the ward, 
 but so carefully protected and partitioned 
 off by screens that the space around his cot 
 had all the privacy and security of an apart 
 ment. He was very much changed ; they 
 would scarcely have known him, but for the 
 delicately curved aquiline profile and the 
 long white moustache now so faint and 
 etherealized as to seem a mere spirit wing 
 that rested on his pillow. To their surprise 
 he opened his eyes with a smile of perfect 
 recognition, and, with thin fingers beyond 
 the coverlid, beckoned to them to approach. 
 Yet there was still a shadow of his old re 
 serve in his reception of Paul, and, although 
 one Land interlocked the fingers of Yerba 
 who had at first rushed impulsively forward 
 and fallen on her knees beside the bed 
 and the other softly placed itself upon her 
 head, his eyes were fixed upon the young 
 
248 A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 
 
 man s with the ceremoniousness due to a 
 stranger. 
 
 " I am glad to see, sir," he began in a 
 slow, broken, but perfectly audible voice, 
 " that now you are satisfied with the 
 right of this young lady to bear the 
 name of Arguello and her relationship 
 
 sir to one of the oldest " 
 
 " But, my dear old friend," broke out 
 Paul, earnestly, " I never cared for that 
 I beg you to believe " 
 
 fct He never never cared for it 
 dear, dear colonel," sobbed Yerba, passion 
 ately : " it was all my fault he thought 
 only of me you wrong him ! " 
 
 " / think otherwise," said the colonel, 
 with grim and relentless deliberation. "I 
 have a vivid impression sir of an 
 
 interview I had with you at the St. 
 Charles where you .said " He was si 
 lent for a moment, and then in a quite dif 
 ferent voice called faintly 
 
 " George ! " 
 
 Paul and Yerba glanced quickly at each 
 other. 
 
 " George, set out some refreshment for 
 the Honorable Paul Hathaway. The best, 
 sir you understand. ... A good nigger, 
 
A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. 249 
 
 sir a good boy ; and he never leaves me, 
 sir. Only, by gad ! sir, he will starve him 
 self and his family to be with me. I brought 
 him with me to California away back in the 
 fall of forty-nine. Those were the early 
 days, sir the early days." 
 
 His head had fallen back quite easily on 
 the pillow now ; but a slight film seemed to 
 be closing over his dark eyes, like the inner 
 lid of an eagle when it gazes upon the sun. 
 
 " They were the old days, sir the days 
 of Men when a man s word was enough 
 for anything, and his trigger-finger settled 
 any doubt. When the Trust that he took 
 from Man, Woman, or Child was never 
 broken. When the tide, sir, that swept 
 through the Golden Gate came up as far as 
 Montgomery Street." 
 
 He did not speak again. But they who 
 stood beside him knew that the tide had 
 once more come up to Montgomery Street, 
 and was carrying Harry Pendleton away 
 with it. 
 
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