*

Mart rose late next morning. "I had a bad night," he explained. "The
mixed liquors I tuck got into me wound, I guess. It woke me twice,
achin' and burnin'. You're lookin' tired yersilf, little girl. This high
life seems to be wearin' on the both of us."

CHAPTER X

BEN FORDYCE CALLS ON HORSEBACK

Ben Fordyce and his affianced bride rode home talking of the Haneys.
"Aren't they deliciously Western!" she said.

"Mrs. Haney certainly is a quaint little thing," he replied, quite
soberly; "she's like a quail--so bright-eyed, and so still. I think her
devotion to her old husband very beautiful. She's more like a daughter
than a wife, don't you think so?"

"They're great fun if you don't feel sorry for him as I do," Alice
thoughtfully responded. "They say he was magnificent as a gambler. He
admitted to me to-night that he longed to go back to the camp, but that
he had promised his wife and mother-in-law not to do so. I never ran a
gambling-saloon, but I can imagine it would be exciting as a play all
the time, can't you? Here, as he said to me, he can only sit in the sun
like a lizard on a log. It must seem wonderful to her--having all this
money and that big castle of a house. Don't you think so? Wasn't she
reticent! She hardly uttered a word the whole evening. Some way I feel
sorry for them both. They can't be happy. Don't you see that? It is
plain she doesn't love him as a wife should, while he worships her. When
she's away he is helpless. 'I'm no gairdner,' he said, pathetically; 'I
was raised on the cobble-stones. I wouldn't know a growin' cabbage from
a squash.' So you see he can't pass his time in gardening."

Ben's reply was a question. "I wonder if she would ride with us?"

"Perhaps we would do better not to follow up the acquaintance, Ben. It's
all very interesting to meet them as we did to-night, but they are
impossible socially--that you must admit. If there is any possibility of
our settling down here I suppose we must be careful to do the right
thing from the start."

Ben was a little irritated by this. "If I'm to settle here as a lawyer I
can't draw social distinctions of that sort."

"Certainly not--as a lawyer. Of course, you ought to know Haney; but for
me to ride or drive with Mrs. Haney is quite a different matter.
However, I don't really care. She attracts me, and, so far as I know, is
just a nice little uncultivated woman. We might call on her in the
morning, and see if she can