The Velvet Glove follows the adventures of traveler Don Francisco de Mogente and his life in Saratoga, California. Excerpt: “The Ebro, as all the world knows--or will pretend to know, being an ignorant and vain world--runs through the city of Saragossa. It is a river, moreover, which should be accorded the sympathy of this generation, for it is at once rapid and shallow. On one side it is bordered by the wall of the city.”