the wall which had been crudely covered with
tin to keep out the draughts in winter. The drooping ceiling of cotton
material, which sagged in great billows under the thatch of the roof.
It was all deplorable to a woman who had known the comfort of an almost
luxurious girlhood. Into her eyes crept a curious light. It was half
resentful, half triumphant. It was wholly absorbed.

"Suppose? There's no supposition," she cried bitterly. "I have had
the experience of it all, the grind. Maybe you don't know what it is
to a woman, a girl, to find herself cut off suddenly from all the
little luxuries she has always been used to. I don't mean
extravagances. Just the trifling refinements which count for so much
in a young woman's life. The position is possible, so long as the hope
remains of their return later, perhaps fourfold. But when that hope no
longer exists--I guess there's nothing much else that's worth while."

The man continued to smoke on for some silent moments. Then, as the
girl, too, remained silent, he glanced at her out of the corners of his
eyes.

"You gave up a good deal for me--for this," he said in gentle protest.
"But you did it with your eyes open--I mean, to the true facts of my
position. Say, Effie, I didn't hold you up for this thing. I laid
every card on the table. My father threatened us both, to our faces,
if we persisted in marrying. Well, I guess we persisted, and he--why,
he just handed us what he promised--the dollars that bought us
this--farm. That was all. It was the last cent he figured to pass our
way. You know all that, and you never squealed--then. You knew what
was in store. I mean--this." He flung out one arm in a comprehensive
gesture. "You guessed you'd grit enough to face it--with me. We hoped
to win out." Then he smiled. "Say, I guess I haven't given up a
thing--for you, eh? I haven't quit the home of millionaire father
where my year's pocket money was more than the income of seventy per
cent. of other folks! I, too, did it for this--and you. Won't you
stick it for me?"

The man's appeal was spoken in low earnest tones His eyes were gentle.
But the girl kept hers studiously turned from his direction, and it was
impossible for him to read that which lay behind them.

Again some silent moments passed. The girl was gently rocking herself.
At last, however, she drew in her feet in a nervous, purposeful
movement, and sat forward.

"Bob," she exclaimed, and