They left that hospitable home, to which they will always look back with grateful and pleasureable recollection, the next morning. Except on the higher peaks, and in the fastnesses of rock, the snow was gone. There is no thaw in that blessed region; the snow is absorbed by evaporation, and the rich brown earth appears from beneath it, offering at once a solid resistance to the feet of man and beast.
The Caldwells accompanied them to the depot, and there, while they were bidding the travellers good-by, a head appeared at the window of a private car, which seemed to Mordaunt like a direct manifestation that Providence was actively employed in his behalf. How otherwise could it be accounted for—surely not by mere paltry coincidence—that Mr. Planter should be travelling to San Francisco by this train, with his wife and daughter?
The greater part of the journey Mordaunt passed in that private car. Mrs. Frampton and Grace were also invited to take their seats in it, but they candidly confessed that they found it too fatiguing to talk all day long in a train, and confined themselves to paying a daily visit to the ladies at tea-time. At first, Grace had some ado to persuade her aunt to receive this small hospitality, or, indeed, to be passably civil. She was extremely annoyed at meeting these people, "the only ones," as she said, "on the whole of this continent, I particularly wished to avoid." But she was too clever not to accept the logic of events. Since the girl and her parents were there—under her nose—the best thing she could do was to study them, not to put herself in the wrong with Mordy, and so damage her influence, by her demeanor to his friends. The father belonged to a type she had not yet met, and him she soon got to like. He had no pretension of any kind, but possessed great shrewdness and considerable business capacity. Unfortunately, he had also an inveterate love of speculation. He had made three fortunes, and lost two. He spoke quite simply of his deficient education, his early struggles, his successes, and his failures. He was now on the top of the wave. But (Mrs. Frampton asked herself) how long would he remain there? As an acquaintance, she found him really quite interesting; he told her so much about railway stocks, in which he had a large amount of capital, and explained to her the resources of the country through which these lines passed. "But," as she said to her niece, "clever and straightforward as the man is—and he does impress me with a great sense of straightforwardness—one would never feel safe with such a speculator! He told me openly he didn't wish his daughter to marry an Englishman, and though he would never forbid her marrying any one she loved, he would try and prevent it by all the weight of his influence. That is my only hope! I see Mordy is very far gone. But the girl does not care enough about him, I suspect, to oppose her father."
"Perhaps so. I am not sure. How do you like her? Don't you think, besides her beauty, that she is very attractive?"
"I am always attracted by beauty. You know it is a weakness of mine. And she has a nice voice and good manners. I won't say more at present. I must watch her. But if she was an angel straight from heaven, I shouldn't wish Mordy to marry a girl with such uncertain prospects."
Grace smiled.
"I suspect an angel straight from heaven would not come, 'in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory!' Mr. Planter, who seems devoted to his daughter, would not allow her to be dependent on his speculative ventures, I should think. However, it is no use worrying about it, aunty, one way or the other. The thing may never come to pass."
"No. Mordy suffers from chronic inflammation of the heart. Only he has the disease in rather a worse form than usual. I wish it had been Beatrice Hurlstone, however."
Her niece made no reply. It was wiser to let her aunt absorb and assimilate the Planter family slowly, than to cram them down her throat. And the next day Mrs. Frampton said,
"I have been talking a good deal to the mother. I don't dislike her. She is not as clever, she has not the worldly tact of Mrs. Hurlstone, and is evidently inferior to her daughter and to the husband, but I don't think she is a bad sort of woman."