The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1908-05-21
CHAPTER XVI.
Gideon's Story.
lConnnucl nom AZ VOL

fitted, gathering the honeydew she
fed upon. When Esther met her she
was as gay with one cavalier as with
another, until Alfred appeared. He
was never her escort; yet II he came
to party or theater she claimed him al
once. Esther became convinced that
the barrier that had once separated
herself from Alfred now existed be,
tween him and Amabel; that for ANA.
bells sake he insisted on her perfect
freedom in the eyes of society. This
conviction did not bring tranquility:
and Esthes asked herself bitterly. why,
In all the throng that followed her,
there vas no some brave and honest
soul that could dislodge Alfred from
her heart. AS the winter waned she
found herself very weary of the mo-
notonous round, of the days and nights
that doomed before her, stretching TO
blank, gray years. And when the
warm sunshine adorned the hills with
rioting bloom, more and more she
spent solitary hours on the road with
her smart team, her most conspicuous
extravaganza.
Valentines day" she mused this
morning, as she leaned out of the open
window to the brilliant, c~Iose-bending
sun OF California. Fuchsia and nastur-
tium We'd with perfumed heliotrope
and jasmine In the long climb up the
houseside; but purple and white won
through their fragrance, and she
gathered a feathery cluster for her
belt.
She met her housekeeper In the
dining room, and looked over the at
t~ractive heap brought by mail and
messenger; valentines of the old lace
paper sort, hiding tiny mirrors and ar.
dent poetical requests to look on my
fair" flowers, books, gems which she
would never accept-all the what-not
OF sentimental Valentines day 40
years ago. One Offering charmed her.
II was a golden arrow of delicate Mes-
lean filigree, light, graceful, wonder
fully brilliant, a brilliance Esther did
not at first discover as coming from
many tiny diamonds, each hardly
larger than a p~inpoint, set very close
ly together.
How exquisitei" exclaimed Mrs.
B%rockett, who was friend as well as
housekeeper. II never saw anything
like IL. For your hair, isn't it?" She
took 1t from Esther and shot it through
her big brown coil, the f~eathered end
standing high, the pointed shaft shin
ing just back OF her ear. TITS the most
beautiful ornament you have. Won't
you keep it?"
Il see no way to return IT, Esther
said. searching wrappers and box for
a clew to the sender. There isn't
a word, a letter-not even the merch-
ants name on the box. How did it
Gomez"
The Chinaman said a small boy
brought it this morning before seven
o'clock" Mrs. Brockett replied. as she
left the room.
The trinkets did not interest Esther.
She took up her paper instead. AT
the first glance she cried out
Gideon Ingram Anthony-His Ro.
NVlO lnt mist NOIuS SIG SAW. /
She stared uncomprehendingly for a
moment. then read on feverishly. 1t
was a strange tale, pieced together
from many sources, and confirmed by
appended interviews with several "old-
est settlers"
The story of Gideon Ingram, of the
~ell-known freighters, Ingram, Finn C
reads like one or Mrs. South
novels; yet 1t is only one OF
many dramas resulting from the
clash of Latin and Anglo-Saxon In
In the early '40s a young New Eng
and teacher, William Anthony by
name. sea-yoyaging for his health,
dropped into Monterey u OF curiosi-
", and remained. entranced by the
and bewitched by a pair of
beautiful Spanish eyes. Influential
opened the best doors OF the
capital to him; and his own fine per-
o won him popularity.
Lolita, the spoiled and only child OF
Senior fernando Guerrero, heiress TO
half a county and the toast of the
own, fell in love with the young Puri-
an. a love he returned as ardently as
my swain OF her own people. Those
who know the Monterey OF that day
that the blood OF a prairie princess
mingled with the blue Andalusian of
he Guerrcros In Lolita's veins.
Whether trHe or not. she had the Inn
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