wife of Don Altana, be safer from any approach which her father might make than she would be as the daughter of John Dubb: provided that Mark Stanley, as it seemed almost certain that he would do, guessed out the secret of Mary's parentage.
And this was the way that the case had presented itself to Dubb when Mark Stanley, wearing the guise of a Spanish nobleman, laid suit for the hand of his own daughter in marriage. It cannot be said that Dubb thought the matter out in this way, because, thinking was out of his line ; but this was the way in which he suddenly saw it, just as a piece of statuary is suddenly revealed to us by the lifting of the veil.
He did not like Don Altana, personally; but Mary liked him, and the world accepted him as an extraordinarily brilliant and successful man; and that, practically, was sufficient. Mary's speedy acceptance of the Don gave Dubb a sense of comfort which was extremely gratifying. Not that he wanted to part with Mary; far from it; but he knew that she was likely to marry some day, and he very much doubted if any one better than Don Altana would ever seek her. And so, for once in his life, the measured regularity of his movements was supplanted by something nearer haste than he had ever shown before, since the days when his aunt had accelerated his movements by virtue of a thorn-tree rod; and in an almost incredibly short time after leaving Mark at the hotel, Dubb rejoined him, and said,—
"Well, Don Altanner, she says as how as I shall say to you as her answer am 'yes'."
"Good!" cried Mark. "Good! Señor Dubb, your daughter, now my affianced wife, will do great honor and credit to the lovely and stately women who, in past centuries, have been wives and mothers in my proud old family. Señor Dubb, you have made me happy,—happier than any other man in California. Now, with me, there shall be no more cards, no more wine, no more clubs, no more gluttony; there are still in me some remnants of manly decency, and I will spend the balance of my days in cleansing them from the moral and social slime with which they are now reeking, so that I may make myself something like worthy of your daughter's love, respect, and obedience. To the little of good there is in me, shall be added the greater good which I shall draw from your daughter's love: she shall teach me whatever she will, and I shall make myself what she wills. I shall give her half of my worldly possessions, as a wedding-present, and the rest of what I own shall also eventually be hers."
"No matter 'bout that," answered Dubb: "they be enough money fur her, what I have made outen the mine. I don't wanter say nothin' what soun's boasty and braggy, but the ole mine have gin out a pile o' money, an' it am all hern. In course, I'll keep 'nough back ter keep me peggin' on while I'm a-livin'; but arter that she'll git it all."
"Oh, Señor Dubb, Señor Dubb, you must not speak of an 'after' to your life. We cannot spare you from California; we should"
"They am lots o' better men nor me in Californy," interposed Dubb; "an' they ain't no man, nowhere, what am so big an' so ne'ssary that they ain't some other man, jest as big an' jest as good, ter take his place."
