found in a twinkling. No one could have
missed it. Heavy ink outlined it in the column of "City Chatter," and
she read the paragraph aloud without a tremor of voice. Her
deliberateness nearly drove the ranchman to distraction.

"The friends of Mrs. John D. Carruthers will be interested to learn
that the marriage of her daughter, Mrs. Elvine van Blooren, widow of
the late Robert van Blooren, to Jeffrey Masters, of the celebrated
'Obar' Ranch, and this year's President of the Western Union Cattle
Breeders' Association, is to be solemnized at the Church of St. Mary in
this city on August 4th next. The Rev. Claude I. Carston, M. A.,
will----"

There was more of it, much more, referring in the usual local
journalistic fashion to the "happy event," and dwelling upon the
important "social standing" of the bride and bridegroom. But Nan read
no further then. There was no need to. Was not the completeness of
her disaster contained in those lines? The courage of the front she
displayed before the sympathetic eyes of her father was superlative.

There was just a pause. It was the tragic pause under a staggering
blow. Then she forced a smile into the brave eyes, which never for a
moment fell before the other's regard.

"There! There, my Daddy," she said, with a studied calm which did not
conceal the dry-throated swallow which accompanied the words. "I guess
it was how I thought. You were scared. Scared to tell me." She shook
her head. "It's--it's not very brave, is it? I wonder why you were
scared? You needn't have been. Folks don't need to be scared
of--anything. What you need most is just to--to grit your teeth
and--die hard."

Her manner was becoming abstracted. It seemed as if she were
addressing herself, warning herself, and fighting down a weakness which
was threatening to overwhelm her.

Presently she went on, while the man stood by utterly robbed of the
power to comfort her:

"August the fourth," she murmured. "August--that's six weeks from now.
Six weeks of--sunshine and--and warmth. When the harvest's ripening,
and all the world's just--glad. And he'll be glad, and--and happy,
too. Yes, Jeff will be very, very happy because--she's going to make
him happy."

Quite suddenly she started up from her chair. A dreadful panic had
leaped to her eyes. The delicious, healthy color had been swept from
her pretty downy cheeks. The corners of her sweet mouth were drooping,
and her hands were