"That is right, to buy it when the place was sold for debt; any son of the Church should do that," she conceded; "but to hold it,--to treat it as a quarry from which to mine bricks and blocks of stone,--may the saints intercede for your brother in his grave, who did such wickedness! If your mother had known that a son of hers was fighting in the courts of law against the Church, it would have killed her the day the word reached her. If you people value money more than the blessing of God, I will give you money for it--to you and your English partner; but not another blast of powder must shatter the place of the altar." It was in vain they told her Dona Maria had a pious plan to blow down the stonework--the most magnificent monument of such Indian labor ever erected in that part of Mexico which is now United States,--and to build on its site an adobe chapel of her own design. Raquel Estevan de Arteaga listened quietly to all the plans, but shook her head. "It is sacrilege; it shall not be," she repeated. "Since gold is the god of the English people, we will give them gold." "But you forget, beloved," put in Rafael. "Dona Maria is Catholic--is Spanish--is--" "Rafael," said his bride, quietly, "will you listen a little? Then it will be no need to speak of those things again--we will both understand. The padre comes a stranger to San Juan as I do, but he comes from a strange land, and cares not anything for these different races. But I have all the names of those people from your mother, that I know whom to avoid in this life--and in the next." "My mother was one of the old Spanish people; they were slow. Times change." "Yes, times did change when men like Alvarado were pushed aside and a quadroon ruled the politics and the Mission property. Thus California paved the way for American rule. In politics and business men must meet unpleasant people often, but it is not ever necessary for the ladies of any family to do so; and, Rafael, here before your padre, two things I must say. The heretics I have promised never to meet except as God sends them in our path. As for the Spanish ladies you mention, if you do not know that there is not a woman of noble Spanish blood in the length of this valley, then you shut your eyes very tight when you might see. The daughters of Don Juan Alvara have one Spanish strain in them; the others are mixed people of Mexican, Indian, and negro, and few of them care to remember their grandmothers. When you bring into my house Spanish ladies of good breeding, I shall be glad to make them welcome, but I do not care for the substitutes. The Indios by the river are of more interest, for they need to be taught." This conversation had been repeated by Padre Andros to Dona Maria over a game of _malilla_ and a glass of the new American drink called whiskey,--a gift from the army officers, and enjoyed very much by the ladies of San Juan; it suggested a drink made of chilis, because of the appetizing burn it gave the throat.