the relief of change; more than that, I fear, she looked upon this
infidelity to a past dubious pleasure as a moral principle. A mild, open
flirtation with a recognized man like Brace, after her secret passionate
tryst with a nameless nomad like Low, was an ethical equipoise that
seemed proper to one of her religious education.
Brace was only too happy to profit by Miss Nellie's condescension; he at
once secured the seat by her side, and spent the four hours and a half
of their return journey to Excelsior in blissful but timid communion
with her. If he did not dare to confess his past suspicions, he was
equally afraid to venture upon the boldness he had premeditated a
few hours before. He was therefore obliged to take a middle course of
slightly egotistical narration of his own personal adventures, with
which he beguiled the young girl's ear. This he only departed from once,
to describe to her a valuable grizzly bearskin which he had seen that
day for sale at Indian Spring, with a view to divining her possible
acceptance of it for a "buggy robe;" and once to comment upon a ring
which she had inadvertently disclosed in pulling off her glove.
"It's only an old family keepsake," she added, with easy mendacity; and
affecting to recognize in Mr. Brace's curiosity a not unnatural excuse
for toying with her charming fingers, she hid them in chaste and
virginal seclusion in her lap, until she could recover the ring and
resume her glove.
A week passed--a week of peculiar and desiccating heat for even those
dry Sierra table-lands. The long days were filled with impalpable
dust and acrid haze suspended in the motionless air; the nights were
breathless and dewless; the cold wind which usually swept down from the
snow line was laid to sleep over a dark monotonous level, whose horizon
was pricked with the eating fires of burning forest crests. The lagging
coach of Indian Spring drove up at Excelsior, and precipitated its
passengers with an accompanying cloud of dust before the Excelsior
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