formality, Don Mike?"

"My name is Miguel. You're right, Kay. Fortunately, all of my friends
called on me when I was in the hospital, and at that time I took pains
to remind them that my social activities would be limited for at least
a year."

"Two of your friends called on mother and me today, Miguel."

"Anita Sepulvida and her mother?"

"Yes. She's adorable."

"They visited me in hospital. Very old friends--very dear friends. I
asked them to call on you and your mother. I wanted you to know Anita."

"She's the most beautiful and charming girl I have ever met."

"She _is_ beautiful and charming. Her family, like mine, had become
more or less decayed about the time I enlisted, but fortunately her
mother had a quarter section of land down in Ventura County and when a
wild-cat oil operator on adjacent land brought in a splendid well,
Señora Sepulvida was enabled to dispose of her land at a thousand
dollars an acre and a royalty of one-eighth on all of the oil produced.
The first well drilled was a success and in a few years the Sepulvida
family will be far wealthier than it ever was. Meanwhile their ranch
here has been saved from loss by foreclosure. Old Don Juan, Anita's
father, is dead."

"Anita is the only child, is she not?"