d only peeped out through the eyes now and then. She
did not, of course, plan all this in sober reason; she just dreamed it
with her eyes open.

It had been in such a spirit that she had written to Ward; though he
would undoubtedly have read love into the lines and so have been
encouraged in the planning of that house with the wide porch in front!
She had dreamed all the way home of seeing Ward at the end of the
journey. Perhaps he would come out and help her down from the stage,
when it stopped at the gate, and call her Bill-Loo--never once had Ward
spoken her name as others spoke it, but always with a twist of his own
which made it different, stamped with his own individuality--and he
would walk beside her to the house and comfort her with his eyes, and
never mention mommie till she herself opened the way to her grief.
Then he would call her Wilhemina-mine in that kissing way he had--

Someone came upon the doorstep and stood there for a moment, stamping
snow off his feet. Billy Louise caught her breath and waited, her eyes
veiled with her lashes and shining expectantly. A little color came
into her cheeks. Ward had been delayed somehow, but he was coming now
because she needed him and he wanted her--

It was only John Pringle, heavy-bodied, heavy-minded, who came in and
squeaked the door shut behind him. Billy Louise gave him a glance and
dropped her head back on the red cushion. "Hello, John!" she greeted
tonelessly.

John grinned, embarrassed between his pleasure at seeing Billy Louise
and his pity for her trouble. His white teeth showed a little under
his scraggy, breath-frosted mustache.

"Hello! You got back, hey? She's purty cold again. Seems like it's
goin' storm some more." He pulled off his mittens and tugged at the
ice dangling at the corners of his lips. "You come on stage, hey? I
bet you freeze." He went over and stood with his back to the fire, his
leathery brown hands clasped behind him, his face still undecided as to
the most suitable emotion to reveal. "Well, how you like town, hey?
No good, I guess. You got plenty trouble now. Phoebe and me, we stick
by you long as you want us to."

"I know you will, John." Billy Louise bit her lips against a sudden
impulse to tears. It was not Ward, but the crude sympathy of this old
halfbreed was more to her than all the expensive flowers that had been
stacked upon mommie's coffin. She had felt terribly alone in Boise.
But her chilled so