nd keeps Miss Swine--"

"Swaim, Geraldine Swaim," Laura cried, in disgust.

"Yes, Geraldine Swim--keeps her inside, so's nobody gets a good look at
her. I was there myself, a-watchin' him. I'd gone to see if my fish 'd
been sent up, an' when they'd all cleared out he trots her out, big as
Cuffey, and races to the hotel with her. Maybe, though, York didn't
know she was comin', or had Ponk put up to lookin' after her for him.
You never can tell about these men. I noticed York never walked home
with her last night, neither. 'Course it was light as day. Well, well,
it's interestin' as can be. An' she come here purpose to see your
brother, too."

"If you are through with my hat"--Laura was fairly gray with anger and
her eyes flashed as she tried to control herself.

Nobody was wiser than Stellar Bahrr in situations like this.

"In jest a minute. Them's the daintiest roses yet. Thank you, Miss
Laury. You ain't above helping a person like me. There's them that is
here in New Eden. But I know 'em--I know 'em. They talk to your back and
never say a word to your face, not a blamed word. But you're not like
'em. Everybody says you're just like your brother, an' that's enough for
anybody to know in the Sage Brush country. He's been the best friend I
ever had, I know that. I hope that pink-'n'-white city girl 'll find out
that much pretty quick. Somebody ought to tell her, too. Well, good day,
Miss Laury. My umberel's right outside in the umberel-stand."

Poor Laura! She was no fighter from choice, no imputer of evil motives,
but her love for her brother amounted almost to idolatry.

"I'm her one weakness," York often said. "Her strength is in her sense
of humor, her kind heart, her love of beautiful things, and the power of
the old scrapping blood of the Macphersons that will stand so much--and
then Joan of Arc is a tennis-player alongside of my blessed sister in
her righteous wrath."

That rainy day ended with a problem in the minds of at least three New
Eden dwellers: York Macpherson, who carried a bigger load now than Joe
Thomson's unwise but determined mortgage matter; Junius Brutus Ponk, who
was sharing York's problem to a degree, and Laura Macpherson, who
realized that a malicious under-current was already started whose
undermining influence might sooner or later grow into a menacing power.

And Jerry Swaim, unconscious cause of all this problem element, ate and
slept and laughed and dreamed her pretty day-dreams in