bore a detestable imprint; and Miss Eastlake was convinced that her lover held ridiculously obsolete notions about equal suffrage. She even had the temerity to tell him that his ideas ought to be relegated to the mists of antiquity,whereupon the usual unreconcilable quarrel ensued, and each went a sepa

rate way.

Since that isolated chapter in romance her life had been the steady grind of a bachelor-girl, who instead of "uselessly, aimlessly drifting through life," idly waiting to be somebody's wife, bestirs herself to make a respectable livelihood. People had come to regard her as a capable, self-supporting creature, with a ripe scholarship and a strong personality, which engenders the assumption that independence was the keynote to her character, and that she was chiefly solicitous for the dignity and emoluments of power. Secretly, however, she had a weakness for love, matrimony, and a companion, who would regard her as an equal, instead of a slave; and she told herself a little wistfully:

"If men had not made such persevering efforts to prove marriage a failure, women would not have found it incumbent to seek a sphere outside of home."

Maud was honestly tired of her homeless life. Existence in hotels and boarding-houses never fills the want inherent in every truly womanly nature; and her retrospective revery had a slightly depressing effect ere she reached Santa Margarita.

Here the Southern Pacific shunted its passengers off on to a stage line; and while Miss Eastlake stood on the terminal platform, waiting for the luggage to be transferred from the cars to the coach, her eyes roved restlessly round, from the gay colored equipage with its triple team of horses, to the little hamlet, which looked like scarcely more than a tiny VOL. xxvi.-28.

railroad interrogation point on a vast range of solitude. If she had but recognized it, there was a tranquil beauty in the great, evergreen grove, which wore the seductive livery of spring through all the varying seasons, and a silent majesty ; in the distant mountain ranges that rose and fell like the chopping waves of a giant sea; but Miss Eastlake had no eye for scenery that was not trivial enough to be laid out by a landscape gardener, so after making the practical observation that the ground was conveniently level to form city lots for the embryo town, which she suspected of having few saintly characteristics beyond its name, she cast a scrutinizing glance towards a knot of men in front of the telegraph office, who were to be her companions during the lonesome drive over the mountain.

It would be difficult to find a more diverse lot in such a limited number of people. There was a Mexican monk clad in somber gown, austerely confined at the waist by a knotted rope; a Chinaman in long quilted silk sack, and baggy white trousers; an English tourist with a jaunty smile, and a dress-suit case; a German, contentedly smoking a long brier-wood pipe; a sombrero-crowned Spaniard in doublet and serape; and half a dozen men, who were presumably Americans, as they pored over pieces of yellow paper, which are currently supposed to be meaningless to the feminine. intellect; but they would not have been meaningless to Miss Eastlake, who felt hungry for the news they were so eagerly discussing.

"If I were not a woman I might join them with impunity, and possess myself of the important information without causing remarks. Our sex is still a long ways from enjoying every male advantage," she mused with a sense of discontent.

The thought brought a sigh to her lips, but she stifled it heroically, and relieved her feelings by adding a touch of irony to her mental soliloquy,-

“Men do not have to conform to an arbitrary social code, for they have nothing to preserve - neither virtue nor caste."

By this time the stage was ready for occupancy, and she was assisted to a seat by a short, inconspicuous man, whose size and build served to remind her of somebody or something in the dim past. As she turned to thank him their eyes met, and a disconcerting recognition took place. Miss Eastlake was, however, too absolutely self-possessed to show her embarrassment, and extending the tips of a perfect fitting glove, she said with assumed cordiality,

march of the inexorable engraver. "He is just as small and homely as ever, and his complexion has grown darker; but his eyes express a more alert intelligence, and time has added keener and finer lines to his countenance."

Every woman cherishes a desire to appear at her best in the presence of the lover with whom she has quarreled, in order that he may not have cause to congratulate himself on a fortunate escape; therefore Miss Eastlake exerted herself to be agreeable. She was no mean conversationalist; but her effort was far from a marked success, since Mr. Greyburn deemed it incumbent to evince a moderate indifference for her society. Therefore he made a child on the opposite seat the object of playful attentions. The infant was accompanied by a glor

The gentleman responded by grasping the proffered hand, and after a conventional greeting he took the seat beside her; but it was more from an imperative sense of politeness than from choice, and though both chatted with apparent friendliness, each secretly regretted the rencounter.

"By the Native Bear! I'm booked for a twelve mile drive with the woman of all others whom I would prefer not to meet," mused the man, as he gave a vicious twist to his mustache, and captiously studied the changes which a lapse of years had made in his unexpected companion.

"She used to be more sylph-like, and there are evidences that the charms of youth are waning," was his mental comment, to which he presently added,"But her figure is more superbly developed, and her conversation and manner have the winning graces of cultivation."

Meanwhile Miss Eastlake's clear eyes were also detecting indications of the

in widow's weeds, and Miss Eastlake suspected that the soft glances of the young mother accounted for the singular interest which Mr. Greyburn manifested in the child.

Maud did not really care, for she was as certain as a woman can be in such matters, that she had a pronounced dislike to Mr. Greyburn; but she was annoyed at annoyed at having her best turned phrases interrupted and rendered abortive by the absurd "peek-a-boo" of a tiny morsel of humanity. So she revenged heself by giving the little one some chocolates, and had the satisfaction of seeing both Mr. Greyburn and the pretty widow thoroughly uncomfortabie in consequence.

After this diabolical ladyism Miss Eastlake cast her eyes towards the landscape, and pretended to be so deeply engaged in looking at the view, as not to hear Mr. Greyburn's next remark until he had repeated it twice.

"This road is violently romantic," he said.

"Oh, I beg your pardon. Do you allude to the scenery, or to incident?" she asked, turning an impassive face towards him.

"To occasional encounter."

Miss Eastlake would not gratify him by asking for an explanation, so she merely fingered a diamond solitaire thoughtfully, and let her glance wander back to the region through which they were being whirled at a breakneck pace.

It

It was a scene made up of mountains and chasms; for the road had already left the level mesa, with its friendly canopy of oaks, and had begun to manifest a vagrant, lonesome disposition. wound back and forth, like a thread of tangled brown silk, as if bent upon getting lost in the maze of gigantic hills, which it coiled in its zigzag loops. The vagabond disposition of the highway, as well as its isolated friendlessness, became more and more apparent as it continued its reckless way, along tortuous shelves that hovered alarmingly near the verge of annihilation. The huge stage swayed uneasily as it was swung sharply around these curves by a cavalcade of dashing steeds that had periods of appearing to precipitate themselves into space.

The passengers chatted in heedless unconcern; and the unseen agency on the box, whistled the "Washington Post" as cheerily as if guiding six spirited horses around the edge of several hundred feet of sheer descent were not a hazardous undertaking.

As if to render the situation still more dubious, the sun took an early opportunity to hide behind a projecting cliff; and the short November day closed up with a sudden snap, leaving them to find their way darkly out of the mountain. labyrinth.

It was during this uncertain epoch in travel that the stage climbed over the highest summit, and began spinning diz

zily down the Cuesta grade. The great bulk of vehicle made a lullaby motion as it moved to and fro on its noiseless straps, and yielding to the soporiferous. influence, the child dropped off to sleep. Miss Eastlake observed Mr. Greyburn wrap a traveling rug tenderly about the tiny form, and some reminiscent spirit. insinuated,

"He might be showering caressing attentions upon you, if you had n't questioned his Garden-of-Eden birthright to government."

Miss Eastlake would have been more or less than a woman if she had not felt a sigh forming in the recesses of her heart, as she ruminated on the "might have been." But the modern maiden is nothing if not sensible, so she stifled the weakness with the admonition :

"Don't be an idiot,- sentimentalism is out of date, and no man ever retains an adoration for the angelic creature who consents to marry him. The moment he succeeds in pinioning the wings of his angel, she forfeits her heavenly attributes, and becomes of the earth, earthy."

This sage reflection enabled Miss Eastlake to bestow a compassionate glance on her rival.

"Poor thing! Perhaps she may feel constrained to marry again for the sake of support. Every woman ought to be a bread-winner,-it makes her feel so much more self-respecting. I wonder why men prefer to have her remain a sort of legitimate beggar? I should

"What makes you so quiet?" asked Mr. Greyburn, breaking in upon her revery.

"I should not have suspected you of remarking it," returned Miss Eastlake dryly.

"Why? Because I am such a dull companion?"

"On the contrary, because you are such an entertaining one," was the pointed response.

Mr. Greyburn winced, though he made a feint of being jocose:

"I have n't a quarter about me; but if you don't mind accepting a cigar, I shall be glad to treat."

66

Thanks, I will on condition that you smoke it for me. I dare not aspire to the pleasures which your sex have preempted," she said with a deprecatory wave of the hand.

"I thought the cow-kind of woman was out of date?" he responded satirically.

"To a certain extent, yes; but with the lords of creation she will always remain the only popular ideal of female loveliness."

"I beg leave to differ with you," began Mr. Greyburn; and then made a reflective pause, which lasted so long that Miss Eastlake thought he had finished, and was herself on the point of speaking again, when he added:

Although men in general have not quite reconciled themselves to the wiser and more helpful woman, who has taken the place of the clinging vine, the most sagacious of them are beginning to have a dim perception that the new creature may prove an improvement on the old, and one likely to lead to beneficial domestic results."

To say that Miss Eastlake was dumfounded but faintly expresses the condition of her mind. She could not reconcile this broad-minded view of the case with the narrow notions Ralph Greyburn had cherished less than five years ago; and fairly gasping with delight, she gave a startled glance around the coach, much as if she expected that every male present would denounce him as a traitor.

General conversation had moved through the usual channels of masculine

"The march of improvement is iconoclastic, and when a locomotive wakes the echoes of these wilds, this highway will lose its flavor of adventurous romance, and become only a prosaic part of civilization.”

"Stranger, I reckon the utilitarian spirit of the age demands comfort and convenience more than sentiment," was the response of a shrewd-eyed Califor nian, whose long pointed beard gave an added length and slenderness to his visage.

"That remark, I strongly suspect, bears on the question we were discussing," continued Ralph Greyburn in an

aside.

"The new woman was, at first, a little above the range of man's comprehension, and the violent upheaval of all tradition shocked him. He felt neither sympathy nor admiration for the mannish imitation that threatened to banish refinement and delicacy; but common sense is coming to the rescue of both sexes, and an advanced man, as well as an advanced woman is being evolved from experience that will

Suddenly Mr. Greyburn stopped short, and turned a listening ear towards the roadside, though nothing more remarkable was heard than an incisive, "Whoa!"

It had hardly cut the air, however, ere the melody on the driver's lips broke off so abruptly that one might have inferred that the "Washington Post" had stuck in the ground; and if anything were needed to bear out this theory, it could