It was on this visit to Sacramento that he had accidentally discovered the marriage of Susy and Hooker.
"It's a great deal better business for her to have a husband in the 'profesh' if she's agoin' to stick to it," said his informant, Mrs.
McClosky, "and she's nothing if she ain't business and profesh, Mr.
Brant.

I never see a girl that was born for the stage--yes, you might say jess cut out o' the boards of the stage--as that girl Susy is! And that's jest what's the matter; and YOU know it, and I know it, and there you are!" It was with these experiences that Clarence was to-day reentering the wooded and rocky gateway of the rancho from the high road of the canada; but as he cantered up the first slope, through the drift of scarlet poppies that almost obliterated the track, and the blue and yellow blooms of the terraces again broke upon his view, he thought only of Mrs.Peyton's pleasure in this changed aspect of her old home.

She had told him of it once before, and of her delight in it; and he had once thought how happy he should be to see it with her.
The servant who took his horse told him that the senora had arrived that morning from Santa Inez, bringing with her the two Senoritas Hernandez from the rancho of Los Canejos, and that other guests were expected.

And there was the Senor Sanderson and his Reverence Padre Esteban.

Truly an affair of hospitality, the first since the padron died.