“How strange it is that I haven't felt this wine at all,” said Mercedes; “one-half glass only will make my face unpleasantly warm always, for that reason I dislike wines; but see, I drank this whole glassful, and I don't feel it any more than if it was water.”
“But don't you feel warmer? You were shivering when you came from your room,” George said.
“Yes, I feel better,” she said, timidly.
“Now eat a little and you will sleep better. Take one of these ‘empanaditas de pollo,’” said Elvira, offering one.
“Give me one,” George said. “I know them by experience, and the trouble about them is that you can never have enough, though you feel you have eaten too many. Try them, Darrell, and when you have filled our glasses I'll satisfy your curiosity, telling you why the Solicitor General would not dismiss the appeal of the squatters.”
“Yes, I want to know all about that,” said Clarence, filling the glasses.
CHAPTER XII.—Why the Appeal was Not Dismissed.
At the time when this moonlit picnic of four took place on the steamer's deck, as it glided northward over the glassy surface of the immense Pacific, the people of California had not yet heard about the disclosure of the famous Colton suit. This suit was hidden in the mists of a distant future, and therefore the famous “Huntington Letters” had not come forth to educate the American mind in the fascinating, meandering, shady ways of “convincing” or of “bribery and corruption,” as the newspapers and committee reports have harshly stigmatized Mr. Huntington's diplomacy(!) At that time, 1872, people yet spoke of “bribery” with a degree of shamefacedness and timidity. It was reserved for Mr. Huntington to familiarize the American people with the fact that an American gentleman could go to Washington with the avowed purpose of influencing legislation by “convincing” people with money or other inducements, and yet no one lose caste, or lose his high social or public position, but on the contrary, the convinced and the convincer be treated with the most distinguished consideration. So after drinking half of his second glass, George said:
“I don't believe the stories about Washington being such a corrupt place, where people get everything by bribing. That is a shameful slander. I went there about that dismissal of the Squatters' Appeal, and was treated like a gentleman, even by the Solicitor General, who was outrageously unjust to us. After my uncle had sent to the Attorney General Don Mariano's letter explaining the case and stating how the transcript had been in Washington two years, I went as Don Mariano's attorney to look after the case. I saw the Attorney General immediately, and he told me to return at ten o'clock next morning. I did so, and was shown in at once. He said:
“‘I looked at the case again last evening, and don't see where those settlers can find a hook on which to hang their appeal. There isn't any. It is very singular that this case has not been dismissed before by my predecessor. So I was just telling the Solicitor General, as you entered, to have it dismissed this morning. I have explained my opinion to him. He is going now to the Supreme Court and can make the motion and tell the clerk to enter the dismissal to-day. The United States have no case against Señor Alamar, his title is perfectly good,’ said he, looking at the Solicitor, who stood by silent and motionless. ‘You have only this one case to attend to this morning, besides the one I want continued until I return. The others, you understand, I leave you to manage as you think proper, and at such times as you think best.’