She sniffed at the roses while Sadie eyed her almost awed. Eighteen and with this behind her! The more she knew of the youngest Miss Alston the more her respect and admiration increased. She waited expectantly for the heroine to resume, which she did after a last, luxurious inhalation of the rose's breath. "Wasn't it wonderful that the person who found me was Pancha Lopez? I keep thinking of it all the time. You know I was always crazy about her, but I never thought I'd meet her. And then to finally do it the way I did!" Sadie's comment showed a proper comprehension of this strange happening, and then she wanted to know what Pancha Lopez was like. "Oh, she's a priceless thing--there's nobody anywhere like her, in looks or any other way. She's different. You can't take your eyes off her, and yet she's not pretty. Remarkable people never are." This was a new thought to Sadie who, absorbing it slowly, ventured a safe: "Aren't they?" "No, it's only the second-class ones who don't amount to anything who are good-looking. I must say it was a blow to me to hear that her real name was Michaels. But of course actresses generally have other names, and Lopez does belong to her in a sort of way. She told Lorry about it and about her father, too. Nobody knew she had a father." "What's he like?" "Oh, he's a grand old dear--rough, but he would be naturally, just a miner all his life. He took care of me as if I was a baby." "He won't have to be a miner any more now." They exchanged a glance of bright meaning, and Chrystie, drawing herself up in the chair, spoke with solemn emphasis: "Sadie, I've always been glad I had money, because I'd be lost without it. But I'm glad now for another reason--because we could do something for those two. If we couldn't they'd have had to go back and begin all over again. Pancha's got some money saved up, but it'll be a long time before she gets it, and Lorry says it wouldn't be enough any way. Think of that kind old bear with his hair getting gray trudging up and down the Mother Lode! If I'd thought that was to go on I'd never have had a peaceful night's sleep again. We'd have had to adopt him, and I _know_ he wouldn't have liked that. Now, thank heaven, we can make him comfortable in his own way." "Did he tell you what it was he wanted to do?" "No, he wouldn't, but Lorry got hold of Pancha and wormed it all out of her. For years he's been longing to settle down on a ranch--that was his dream. Poor little dream! Well, it's coming true. We've got several ranches, but there's only one that counts--in Mexico. There's a small one down in Kern that father bought ages ago for a weighmaster he had who got consumption. He died there--the weighmaster, I mean--and we've gone on renting it out and the trustees having all sorts of bother with the tenants. So that's going to be Mr. Michael's. Lorry had the transfer made, or whatever you call it, yesterday in town. She's going to give him the papers tonight."