“I'll have you for a partner, Miss Mercedes, on any terms, and be most happy to do so,” said Mr. Gunther, with more emphasis than the occasion required.
“That being the case, I am ready,” said she, sitting by her sister, thereby being diagonally opposite to Mr. Gunther.
From that time the five travelers were constantly together, and the days passed delightfully for all during the entire journey, especially so to Gunther and Selden. They had no occasion to complain of Mercedes for staying away. She most amiably took part in all their games and other amusements, their walks while waiting at stations, their conversations during the sentimental and delightful twilight hours. She had found that both young gentlemen were a most excellent protection against one another, as neither one was ever willing to go leaving her alone with the other. As for ardent loving looks, she knew that the best way of eluding them was by having recourse to her little trick of dropping her gaze, as if she must look down for something missing near by. That little trick came to her from sheer timidity and bashfulness long ago. In fact, she was unconscious of it, until Corina Holman had told her that whenever Clarence Darrell was present she became sly, and did not dare to look at people squarely in the face—that she was the veriest hypocrite. Thus she learned that her bashful timidity had been entirely misunderstood, but she was also made aware that she had accidentally discovered how to avoid looks which were best not to meet—best to avoid by simply dropping her gaze. As her long, curly lashes veiled her eyes with a silken fringe, they could hide under that cover like two little cherubs crouching under their own wings.
CHAPTER XVI.—Spanish Land Grants Viewed Retrospectively.
San Francisco seemed deserted, dusty and desolate to Clarence after his return from the Yosemite and the society of Mercedes. It was the step from the sublime to the ridiculous; so he ran off to his Alameda farm and remained there until the day before the steamer would leave for San Diego. He then came back late to the dusty city and went in search of Hubert to take him to dinner.
“Come for pity's sake to dine with me and talk to me. I can't eat alone, I am too blue,” said he, going to Hubert's desk.
“All right, my boy. You are the very man I wanted to see, for I have been slashing into your stocks like all possessed;” and he made cuts and thrusts in the air illustrative of a terrible havoc.
“What have you done?” Clarence asked, laughing.
“Well, in the first place, I have sold all your Yellow Jacket, all your Savage and half of your Ophir, and I bought you some Consolidated Virginia and California. What do you say to that?”
“Not one word, for I suppose you know what you are about.”