The San Francisco call., 1904-03-20

which Bessie had suffered in finding
her husband dead had rendered the
country place unbearable to her.
The day after the funeral the
women had removed to town. Win.
however, remained at Menlo Park, to
20 over such documents OF his father 5
as had been left there. Shackleton
had lived so much at his country
place for the last two or three years
that many of his papers and letters
were kept in the library, which had
been his special sanctum.
Among these, the son had come up
on a small package of letters. which
fastened together with an elastic. and
bearing a note of their contents on
one end, had reused his interest. They
were the letters exchanged between
his father and the chief OF the detec-
tive bureau when the latter had been
commissioned to locate the widow and
daughter of Daniel Moreau.
Shackleton. a man OF exceedingly
methodical habits, had kept copies of
his letters. There were only seven of
them altogether-three from him:
four In reply. The first ones were
short, only a few lines. containing the
request TO find the ladies who, the
writer understood, were In San Fran
cisco, and ascertain their circum-
stances and position. Then came the
acknowledgment of that. and then
I'm a few days, the answer stating the
whereabouts of Mrs. Moreau and her
daughter, their means, and such
small facts about them as that the
mother was in delicate health and the
daughter "a handsome. accomplished,
and estimable young lady"
Win looked over this correspond
ence. puzzled and wondering. He re-
membered the girl he had seen in
The Trumpet Office that dark after
noon, and how the Office boy had told
him it was a Miss Moreau, friend of
Miss Willers and a singer. What mo-
tive could his father have had in seek
Ing out this girl and her mother in
this secret and effectual way? He
read over the letters again. Moreau
had died I'm Santa Barbara in the
spring the widow and her daughter
had then come to San Francisco, and
by the wording of the second letter he
inferred that his father had been ig-
norant of their means, and of the
girls appearance, style and character.
1t was evidently not the result of an
interest in people he had once known
and then lost sight of. 1t seemed to
be an interest. for some outside rea-
son, In two women of whom he knew
absolutely nothing.
Win had heard that his father con-
templated offering a musical educa-
ton to some singing girl, of whom the
young man knew nothing, and had
seen only for a moment that day in
The Trumpet office. This was un-
doubtedly the girl. But Shackleton
evidently had not heard of her
through Mrs. Willers. who was known
to be an energetic boomer Of obscure
genius He had hunted her out him
self: had undoubtedly had some ute
rior interest in, or knowledge of her
some time before the day Win had
seen her. 1t was odd, the boy thought.
meditating over the correspondence.
What could have led his father to
search for, and then attempt to assist
a woman who seemed to be a COM
plete stranger to him? 1t looked like
the secret paying of an old debt.
Win put the letters in his pocket
and went up to town. There was
more work for him to do now than
there had been before, and he rose to
it with spirit d energy that sur
prised himself. Neither he nor any
one else had ever realized how para
lying to him had been his fathers
cold scorn. From boyhood, Win had
felt himself TO be an aggravating
failure The elder man had not scru-
pied to make him understand his in
feriority. The mere presence of his
father seemed to numb his brain and
make his tongue stammer over the
simplest phrases. Now, he felt him
self free and full of energy. as though
bands that had cramped his mind and
confined his body were broken. His
old attitude of posing as a fast young
man Of fashion lost its charms. Life
grew suddenly to mean something, to
be full of use and purpose.
He was left very much to himself.
his mother being still too much broken
to attend to business, and Maud being
absorbed in her affair with Latimer,
which had recently eliminated In
secret engagement. This she had been
afraid to tell to her domineering
father and ambitious mother. and her
opportunities of seeing her f1ance had
been of the briefest until now. Lati-
mer haunted the house of evenings,
when Bessie was lying on the sofa In
an upstairs boudoir and Win was
locked in his fathers study going over
the interminable documents.
The first darkness of her grief and
horror past, Bessie, in her seclusion.
thought of many things. One of these
was the fate of Mariposa Moreau. The
bonanza kings widow, with all her
faults, had that lavish and reckless
generosity, where money was con-
cerned, that marked the early Califor-
mans. This forceful woman, who had
made the blighting journey across the
plains without complaint, faced the
fierce hardships Of her early married
life with a smile. borne her children
amid the rude discomforts Of remote
mining camps, was an adept In the art
of luxurious living. She knew by in
stinct how to be magnificent, and one
of her magnihcences was the careless
Y,o,ipif7cence of her generosity.