way. Ah, things were different then! Many of them had not been to Corona del Monte for years, not since the old fiestas in Allie's honour had been given up. And here they were back again to assist in her last fiesta of all! The place did not look the same to them. The old spirit had sickened. And in spite of themselves they could not but notice the peeling paint, the sprouting weeds, the brown patches in the lawn, all the signs that Corona del Monte was not as of yore. As they drifted slowly toward the house they recognized one another; and half nodded, as though a full salutation would in some way desecrate; and gravitated together, and whispered subdued things. Oliver Mills was there; and old Don Vincente shaking with a town-acquired palsy, and his fat, soft, sympathetic women; Jim Paige, Dr. Wallace, old Patterson the riding master. And the Arguello familes were present in force, the Stanleys, Welchs, Carsons, Maynards, and their like; George Scott had come; and the entire Sociedad, getting the news by a chance rider, had driven all night to be there. The ranch dependents, their numbers sadly reduced since the old days, stood one side in a subdued, sad little group. Perhaps the greatest flutter was caused by the arrival of a number of red-buttoned Chinamen.
Inside the house—and this was the extraordinary part that caused the gossips to whisper—the mourners were greeted by the Colonel. By all etiquette of the time the Colonel should not have been in evidence. But there he was, greeting them as guests of the house; grave, to be sure, but clear-eyed, cordial, unembarrassed. He had a word for each of them, and such astonishing words!
"Mrs. Peyton will feel so glad you have come," he told them in effect; and they did not know what to say, being in such matters conventional souls, but were honestly touched. Somehow they sensed that the Colonel was for the last time doing the honours in his house, for the last time greeting poor Allie's guests at this her last fiesta of all. Then Daphne, or Kenneth, or Brainerd took charge of them.
The little house soon filled, and overflowed on to the veranda, and then to the lawn. The windows were opened so that the service could be heard. At its close they all unhitched their
