end of his cigarette. "Well," he said, "the case is yours without further argument. You have put into very vital words a thought which has raised its head in my mind a dozen times since I have been here. You are absolutely right; also, I thank you for setting it forth so deftly. You have saved me a lot of trouble in working it out for myself."
"Good!" said Mrs. Sands; "Just keep it in mind the next time that you are inclined to talk about lax morals, and be sure that you put the shoe upon the foot that it fits. Well, to go on with the story. Evalani's mother was only sixteen when the house next door was given to her, together with the ground upon which this one stands, and she and her mother, old Mrs. Hookano, came up here on Tantalus to live. A few months after that, Evalani was born and the young mother died, leaving the little one to grow up with the old grandmother, here alone on the ridge of the mountain.
"They were comfortably provided for, apparently; and when Evalani was old enough to go to school, she went down to Honolulu and made her home with an aunt who lived in town. Everyone knew who she was, and in the course of time she, herself, came to know; but Hookano means proud, and she never lost her pride or gave any apparent concern to such innuendo as marked her, but always remained as high-spirited and clean-cut as Jean herself.
