"Well, Kate," said the Mayor, motioning to a chair, but without rising or changing his attitude. "Here I am, and here is Colonel Pendleton, and these are office hours. What can we do for you?" If he had received her with magisterial formality, or even politely, she would have been embarrassed, in spite of a certain boldness of her dark eyes and an ever present consciousness of her power. It is possible that his own ease and that of his companion was part of their instinctive good nature and perception. She accepted it as such, took the chair familiarly, and seated herself sideways upon it, her right arm half encircling its back and hanging over it; altogether an easy and not ungraceful pose. "Thank you, Jack--I mean, Mr. Mayor--and you, too, Harry. I came on business. I want you two men to act as guardians for my little daughter." "Your what?" asked the two men simultaneously. "My daughter," she repeated, with a short laugh, which, however, ended with a note of defiance. "Of course you don't know. Well," she added half aggressively, and yet with the air of hurrying over a compromising and inexplicable weakness, "the long and short of it is I've got a little girl down at the Convent of Santa Clara, and have had--there! I've been taking care of her--GOOD care, too, boys--for some time. And now I want to put things square for her for the future. See? I want to make over to her all my property--it's nigh on to seventy-five thousand dollars, for Bob Snelling put me up to getting those water lots a year ago--and, you see, I'll have to have regular guardians, trustees, or whatever you call 'em, to take care of the money for her." "Who's her father?" asked the Mayor. "What's that to do with it?" she said impetuously. "Everything--because he's her natural guardian." "Suppose he isn't known? Say dead, for instance." "Dead will do," said the Mayor gravely. "Yes, dead will do," repeated Colonel Pendleton. After a pause, in which the two men seemed to have buried this vague relative, the Mayor looked keenly at the woman. "Kate, have you and Bob Ridley had a quarrel?" "Bob Ridley knows too much to quarrel with me," she said briefly. "Then you are doing this for no motive other than that which you tell me?" "Certainly. That's motive enough--ain't it?" "Yes." The Mayor took his feet off his companion's chair and sat upright. Colonel Pendleton did the same, also removing his cigar from his lips. "I suppose you'll think this thing over?" he added. "No--I want it done NOW--right here--in this office." "But you know it will be irrevocable." "That's what I want it--something might happen afterwards." "But you are leaving nothing for yourself, and if you are going to devote everything to this daughter and lead a different life, you'll"-- "Who said I was?"