But he must not think of that! By absenting himself from the hotel he managed to keep clear of Pendleton until the hour arrived.

He was gratified to find Yerba in the simplest and most sensible of habits, as if she had already divined his tastes and had wished to avoid attracting undue attention.
Nevertheless, it very prettily accented her tall graceful figure, and Paul, albeit, like most artistic admirers of the sex, not recognizing a woman on a horse as a particularly harmonious spectacle, was forced to admire her.

Both rode well, and naturally--having been brought up in the same Western school--the horses recognized it, and instinctively obeyed them, and their conversation had the easy deliberation and inflection of a tete-a-tete.

Paul, in view of her previous hint, talked to her of himself and his fortunes, of which she appeared, however, to have some knowledge.

His health had obliged him lately to abandon politics and office; he had been successful in some ventures, and had become a junior partner in a bank with foreign correspondence.