The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-04

happy. But this was something to be
thought OF later. Just now Providence
seemed to have offered him a vocation and
purpose that his idle adolescence had
never known. He did not dream that his
capacity for patience was only the slow
wasting Of his love.
Meantime that more wonderful change
ana recreation of the California land
scape-so familiar, yet always so Young
mad come to the rancho. The league
long terrace. that had yelloWed,
Whltened and wasted for half a
year beneath staring, monotonous
SKY, now. under sailing clouds, flying and
broken shafts of light. and sharply de.
fined lines of rain, had taken a faint hue
OF resurrection. The dust that had muf-
fled the roads and byways and choked the
low oaks that fringed the sunken canada.
mad long since been laid. The warm.
moist breath of the Southwest trades had
softened the hard. dry lines of the land
scape, and restored its color, as of a pic
ture over which damp sponge had been
passed. The broad expanse of plateau be-
tore the casa gistened and grew dark.
The hidden woods of the canada, cleared
ana strengthened in their solitude,
dripped along the trails and hollows. that
were now transformed into running
streams. The distinguishing madrono
near the entrance to the rancho had
changed its crimson summer suit and
masQueraded IN butt and green,
Yet there were leaden days when half
the prospect seemed to be seen through
paiisades OF rain; when the slight incline
between the terraces became tumultuous
cascade, and the surest hoofs sIipned on
trails OF unctuous mud; when cattle were
begged few yards from the highway. and
the crossings of the turnpike road we're a
dangerous ford. There were DAYS Of gale
ana tempest, when the shriveled stalks of
giant oats We're stricken like trees and Law
across each other in rigid angles and a
roar as OF the sea came up from the with
ing tree tops In the sunken valley. There
were long, weary nights of steady down
pour, hammering on the red tiles of the
casa ana drumming on the shingles of the
new Veranda, which was more terrible To
be borne. Alone but for the servants and
an occasional storm-stayed tenant from
Fair View. Clarence might have at such
times, questioned the effect of this seclus.
Ion upon his lmpassioned nature But he
had already been accustomed to mouastic
seclusIon IN his boyish life at +! Re(ugio.
and he dld not reflect that for that very
reason It's lndulsences might have been
dangerous. From time to time letters
reached him from the outer world OF San
francesca few pleasant lines from Mrs.
feyton, IN answer to his own chronicle of
his half stewardship. giving the news of
the family and briefly recounting their
movements. she was afraid that Susy'S
sensitive nature chafed under the restric-
ton OF mourning III the gay city. but she
trusted TO bring her back for change to
Robes when the rains were over This
was poor substitute for those brief happv
gimpses of the home circle which had so
charmed him. but ne accepted it stoicaily
He wandered over the old house from
which the perfume OF domesticltv seemed
to have evaporated, yet Notwithstanding
Mrs. Peyton' playful permission, he never
intruded upon the sanctity Of the bouioir
and kept 1t jealously locked.
He was sitting in Peyton's business
room one morning when Incarnation
entered. Clarence had taken a fancy to
who had reciprocated it with certain
dog-like fidelity, but also feline indirect
ness that was part of his nature He had
been early prepossessed with Clarence
through klnsman at FL Refugio, where
the young Americans generosity had left
romantic record among the common
people. He had been pleased TO approve
OF his foliies before the knowledge OF his
prontiess and lordiy land purchase had
commended itself 10 him rs corroborative
testimony. "Ot true hidaigo blood. mark
you, he had said oracularly. Wherefore
Was MS father sacrificed by mongrels, As
10 the Others. believe me-nshl''
He stood there sombrero in hand, niurky
and confidential. steaming through his
soaked serape and exhaIing q blended odor
OF equine preparation and cigarette smoke.
II was perhaps. as the master had no.
tIced, brigand's own day! Bullying.
treacherous and wicked! Ii blew you Oft
your horse If yOu so much as lifted your
arms and let the wind get inside your
SeEaie; and a. Iox the mud, CAIgslntai in