That settled it. If she were to be left behind as a guardian for her mother there was nothing more to be said, and, in the proud consciousness of being selected from the four for this superior office, Jack went to bed perfectly satisfied.
True to her word Nan ran around early the next morning to say good-bye to Charlotte and the two parted most affectionately. Nan returned home to find that the preparations for their own departure had already begun, and she busied herself in packing up the treasure she had collected during her stay in Los Angeles.
Li Hung's childlike smile had fled. He made every excuse from this time out to follow Jack around and to make her frequent offerings of Chinese nuts, queer, bright yellow cakes, strange confections and little boxes of paper flowers which blossomed out when put in water. Clarence hung about the front gate half the time. In a common sorrow he and Li Hung were no longer enemies. "I believe I'll run away," announced Clarence to Jack. "I think I'll go first to San Francisco and then to Virginia."
"You no want velly nice Chinaman go long Santa Babala?" Li Hung asked Mrs. Corner.
It was with some difficulty that she explained to him that they would not need the services of any "velly nice Chinaman," since they would not be keeping house, but she added, as a balm to his feelings: "If we were to keep house, Li Hung, we should certainly want you, and if we ever come back here we shall try to find you."
Li Hung nodded in his mandarin-like way, but he seemed disappointed and did many strange things which he evidently thought would delay their going. Various articles of clothing would be found hidden in out-of-the-way places, books would mysteriously disappear one day to be replaced the next when others would be gone, until finally these crafty performances were discovered to mean no ill will but quite the contrary.
From the tall geranium over the kitchen Nan picked a leaf of remembrance; from the scattered rose-leaves she made a little cushion; orange-blossoms and heliotrope were pressed in her diary. "I'll keep them always," she said, "for I want to take something real away with me, something more than memories."
The twins parted weepingly from the paisano which was bestowed upon Clarence with solemn charges to treat him kindly. "If you don't," said Jack, "I'll tell Li Hung. I'll write to him and then you see what will happen." From this it may be registered that the paisano's future was assured, so far as Clarence was concerned. This youngster put on a very don't care expression as he said good-bye, but his eyes were suspiciously red when he reached home, and that same afternoon he had a desperate fight with the next-door boy because he said girls were no good. With such a cause as that for which he fought Clarence easily came off victor.
The señorita had promised to stay with the family as long as they should remain in California; what she would next do was to be decided later. Mr. Pinckney was expected any day to return from his trip to Mexico when Mary Lee and Nan expected great things. Mary Lee had told Nan of her conference with Jo Poker, but they could come to no conclusion about him nor about his possible relationship to their señorita, and in the excitement of their preparations to leave this subject was dropped. It was only the day before they were to leave their pretty winter home that Mr. Pinckney did come back, and in the fluster of packing and of making adieux there was little chance to do more than ask him: "Did you find out anything about the señorita's father?"
Mr. Pinckney shook his head. "Nothing positive," he returned. "I did see Señor Garcia, but he was mum as an oyster and would give me no satisfaction. An oath to the dead was sacred, he said, and he had promised his wife never to divulge the secret. I discovered her mother's grave but the headstone set forth in Spanish merely that she was the daughter of Antonio and Dolores Mendez. There was a pious inscription, the year of her birth and death, and that was all. No mention of her having been the wife of any one."