[Illustration] Hilda Strafford _A California Story_ By Beatrice Harraden Author of “Ships that Pass in the Night” “In Varying Moods” With Illustrations by Eric Pape [Illustration] New York Dodd Mead and Company 1897 COPYRIGHT, 1896 BY BEATRICE HARRADEN University Press JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. WOULD IT SMILE TO HER 13 II. HILDA COMES 32 III. GROWING REGRETS 51 IV. THE STORM 70 V. DOWN BY THE RIVER 88 VI. ATTRACTION AND REPULSION 119 VII. THE GREAT MIRACLE 138 VIII. ROBERT TAKES HEART 145 IX. SCHUMANN’S NACHTSTÜCK 162 X. A STRICKEN MAN 176 XI. PASSION AND LOYALTY 196 XII. FAREWELL TO CALIFORNIA 217 ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT _Frontispiece_ “Ben lit the lantern, and stationed himself outside with it” _page_ 41 “And he heard Robert asking questions” 47 “She sat on the little verandah” 61 “He lifted a piece of iron piping” 81 “There was no talk between them” 93 “Hilda could not leave the spot” 105 “Hilda at the window” 157 “Hilda’s self-control broke down completely” 167 “Robert passed noiselessly out of the house” 173 “‘Ben,’ he murmured, ‘we must--’ He fainted away” 181 “She bent over her husband and looked at his pale face” 193 HILDA STRAFFORD Hilda Strafford CHAPTER I WOULD IT SMILE TO HER? The day had come at last. Robert Strafford glanced around at the isolated spot which he had chosen for his ranch, and was seized with more terrible misgivings than had ever before overwhelmed him in moments of doubt.