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
surrounded 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.
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instantly withdrawn, but not until he had been thrilled by an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 mattered now this passage with Don
Caesar or the plaudits of his friends? SHE was proud of him!
Yet, after that glance, she was shy, preoccupying herself with
Milly, or even listening sweetly to Judge Baker's somewhat
practical and unromantic reminiscences of the deprivations and the
hardships of California early days, as if to condone his past
infelicity.
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