, but her face glowed in anticipation of what
she was about to say.

"Helen, I am going to confide in you. There is no one here at the
mission I want to share with me in this and--and--I feel as if I wanted
to talk with you about it. Mr. Clifford has asked me two different times
to be his wife, and each time I have refused. And each time it was not
because I did not respect and admire him, but because I thought I did
not love him and most of all because I felt superior to him in
education. I have been to college. It seemed to me as if I should be
marrying beneath my rank if I were to be his wife. Do you think I
should?"

"Should what? Be his wife?"

Lucy Gray blushed and laughed.

"You know what I meant. Should I make a mistake in marrying him or does
it seem to you that I should run the risk of being disappointed in him
all the time simply because I am college bred and he is not?"

"No," said Helen frankly. "I believe Mr. Clifford is the kind of man to
satisfy you in that respect. He is studying all the time. Have you
noticed he has learned an astonishing lot of German from Baeur since he
came? I believe he can almost read Hermann and Dorothea now." Helen said
it with a significant emphasis which made Miss Gray blush again. And
then she added--"Lucy, you said you thought you did not love him and
that was the reason you said no. Have you changed your mind?"

"Yes. Oh, I can't help myself! Let me tell you. That night at Oraibi
when I first knew that Elijah had gone down there to rescue Bauer and
Van Shaw I learned how much he meant to me. I believe I would have gone
there myself if Mr. Masters and your father had not been quick witted
enough to take the rope the workmen had left out there by the great rock
cistern, the first one in all Oraibi. When the three men were pulled up
you remember Mr. Clifford was the last. I know that I pulled with the
others, but I believe I never thought of either Bauer or Van Shaw. All I
cared for was Elijah. I blistered my hands, see!" She opened her palms
for Helen to look. "But I never told anyone. And even when he was
telling that night about it, I seemed to see him slipping, slipping over
that horrible ledge and I just couldn't help actually putting out my
hand to draw him back. They say that college graduate young women don't
know how to fall in love and that they don't get married because young
men are afraid of them, they are so prim and intellectual and superior,
but, oh, Hel