"Oh," cried Mariquita, with her happy laugh, "how funny it is--to hear you talking of Sylvia. She was harum-scarum. What a noise she used to make, too! How pretty she was!" "Sister Elastic is just as pretty. She sent fifty messages to you. But Nellie Hurst--you remember her?" "Certainly I do. She was champion at baseball. And she acted better than anybody. Oh, and she edited the Magazine, and she kept us all laughing. She _was_ funny! Geraldine Barnes had a quinsy and it nearly choked her, but Nellie Hurst made her laugh so much that it burst, and she was soon well again...." "Well, and where do you think she is now?" "Where?" Mariquita asked almost breathlessly. "In California. At Santa Clara, near San Jose. She is a Carmelite." "A Carmelite! And she used to say she would write plays (She did write several that were acted at Loretto) and act them herself--on the stage, I mean." It took Gore a long time to tell all his budget of news; he had hardly finished before they reached the homestead, towards which the sinking sun had long warned them to be moving. And he had presents for her, a rosary ("brought by Mother General from Rome and blessed by the Pope,") a prayerbook, a lovely Agnus Dei covered with white satin and beautifully embroidered, scapulars, a little bottle of Lourdes water, another of ordinary holy water, and a little hanging stoup to put some of it in, also a statue of Our Lady, and a small framed print of the Holy House of Loretto. Mariquita had never owned so many things in her life. "Oh, dear!" she said. "And I had been long thinking that I was quite forgotten there; I am ashamed. And you--how to thank you!" "But you have been thanking me all the time," he said, "ever since I told you where I had been. Every time you laughed you thanked me." They met Ben Sturt, who was lounging about by the gate in the homestead fence; he had never seen Mariquita with just that light of happiness upon her. "Here," he said to Gore, "let me take the horse; I'll see to him." He knew that Mariquita would not come to the stables, and he wanted Gore to be free to stay with her to the last moment. As he led the horse away he thought to himself: "It has really begun at last;" and he loyally wished his friend good luck. Within a yard or two of the door they met Don Joaquin. "Father," she said at once, "Mr. Gore didn't go to Maxwell this time. He went all the way to Denver--to Loretto. And see what a lot of presents he has brought me from them!" Gore thought she looked adorable as, like a child unused to gifts, she showed her little treasures to the rather grim old prairie dog. He looked less grim than usual. It suited him that she should be so pleased. "Well!" he said, "you're stocked now. Mr. Gore had a long ride to fetch them." "Oh, yes! Did you ever hear of anybody being so kind?"