After a moment's silence she resumed: "And the wheat ranch below--is that carried on in the same way ?" "Yes.

But their landlord is a bank, who advances not only the land, but the money to work it, and doesn't ride around in a buggy with a couple of charmingly distracting young ladies." "And do they all share alike ?" continued Rose, ignoring the pleasantry, "big and little--that young inventor with the rest ?" She stopped.

She felt the ingenue's usually complacent eyes suddenly fixed upon her with an unhallowed precocity, and as quickly withdrawn.
Without knowing why, she felt embarrassed, and changed the subject.
The next day they drove to the Convent of Santa Clara and the Mission College of San Jose.

Their welcome at both places seemed to Rose to be a mingling of caste greeting and spiritual zeal, and the austere seclusion and reserve of those cloisters repeated that suggestion of an Old World civilization that had already fascinated the young Western girl.

They made other excursions in the vicinity, but did not extend it to a visit to their few neighbors.