Page:The Valley of Adventure (1926).pdf/363

 had touched his cheeks with searing hands, fixing a cast of sadness upon him which gaiety could not again beguile away. He had trimmed his beard on his cheeks again in the Spanish mode, and his face was browned by sun and wind almost to the color of Padre Ignacio's. There was not a shadow in his clear blue eyes.

Gertrudis carried her little scissors around her neck as before; they were bright against her white dress, lending her an air of domesticity that became her well. The happy termination of her recent sorrow had given her a new vivacity, a poise of maturity and confidence. She faced the future with a smile.

"Governor de Arrillaga was here at midday, Juan, returning from San Diego," she said. "He asked to be remembered."

"As if I could ever forget him! Did he say anything about his decision in the controversy between the padres and the ranchers over the grazing lands?"

"They discussed it quite openly, Don Geronimo says. The governor holds their complaints without foundation. There is room enough," he said, "for them all without grudging the padres grazing grounds for their sheep."

"He is a just man, his decision was foreseen. And the people of the pueblo? did he speak of them?"

"There is more ground for complaint in their case," he said. It is to be arranged in some way, I