The señora inclined her head. The gems in her hair gleamed responsively to the bright lights. The white silk of her gown lay softly against the vivid green of the ferns. "Señor Capitan, I am impelled to come and talk with you." "My dear lady, I am honored." "I wish to make appeal to you." She looked straight into the man's eyes. "Señora Valentino, if I can do anything for you, I am thereby most happy." "Many thanks, Señor Soldier. I shall begin." Morando was all attention. "Señor Capitan, the traditions, the art, the faith of Spain live very near to my heart. They have made old Spain glorious. The world's history would be vastly poorer without them." "Truly, señora." "This province, even now, is smiling under their influence. The future has splendid things in store for us here if the heritage from across the sea has way unimpeded. May there not be another Castile beside this Western coast only less magnificent than the first?" "Señora Valentino, you give my own thoughts." "I rejoice, Señor Capitan. But on whom rests the duty of safeguarding this heritage? Is it not on us, the sons and daughters of Castile?" "Most unquestionably, señora." "Then, let us exert ourselves. Political unrest is agitating the people. It is as yet formless, but soon it must flow in settled stream, for men's thoughts, like water, always seek their level. Señor Soldier, the part of every lover of Castile is plain." "Please say further, señora." "Mexico and California soon go their separate ways. Is it not so?" "I think it is." "The world moves, Captain Morando, and California must move with it. Whither do we go?" Without waiting for reply she went on: "Public opinion can be so molded that it will take us to the protection of either the United States of America or to Great Britain. Great Britain would willingly let flourish here Spanish ideals. Read the history of her dependencies. Captain Morando, our obligations to Spain, to this province, to ourselves, demand that we lead the people to ask the coming of the British flag." "Señora Valentino, many are speaking of these matters. The necessity for some action is forcing itself. But the United States lies nearest us. Their government is republican, the same in form as that to which the people here are accustomed." "Ah! Capitan. I have been in the capital of the United States with my attaché husband. Two years ago what did I hear? It was a question of Texas coming into their Union. Even the great ones said, 'Let us drive the Mexicans and Spaniards across the Rio Grande, then to perdition!'" Morando did not speak. "They would not deal differently with us in California. Let come the United States and all vestige of Spanish civilization will be obliterated, and another foreign to it will be installed. Great Britain would be our protector. Why chance the coming of disaster?" "Señora, you have thought wondrously deep."