e'd
be shiverin' this minute. Did ye see Mrs. Crego pucker up when she
sighted us?"

"I did, and it settled her for me," replied Bertha.

The intimacy thus established between the Haneys and the Congdon circle
furnished the gossip of the "upper ten" with vital material for
discussion. Mrs. Crego most decidedly disapproved of their calling, and
advised Alice Heath against any further connection with the gambler's
wife.

"What good can it possibly lead to? It's only curiosity on your part,
and it isn't right to disturb the girl's ideals--if she has any."

To this Alice made no reply, but Ben stoutly defended the young wife.
"She would have been as good as any of us with the same education. The
poor little thing has had to work since her childhood, and that has cut
off all training. As for Haney, he isn't a bad man. I suppose he argues
that as some one must keep a gambling-house, it is best to have a good
man do it."

The sense of being to a degree freed from the ordinary restraints of
social life made Alice very tolerant. But, as it chanced, they did not
go out the next day; indeed, it was several days before they again rode
up to the Haney gate. They found Bertha dressed and ready for them (as
she had been each morning), and when she came out to them her heart was
glowing and her face alight.

"We've come to see the new horse!" called Ben.

Haney was at the gate with a smile of satisfaction on his face when the
horse was brought round. "There is a steed worth the riding!" he
boasted. "I told Bertie to get the best. I would not have her riding a
'skate' like that one the other morning. She'll keep ye company this
day."

Ben exclaimed, with admiration: "I see you know horse-kind, Captain!"

"I do," responded Haney. "And now be off, and remember you take dinner
with us to-day."

As they moved away he took his customary seat on the porch to wait for
their return--patient in outward seeming, but lonely and a little
resentful within.

Bertha suggested a ride up the Bear Canon, but Ben was quick to say:
"That is too far, I fear, for Alice."

Bertha's glance at Alice revealed again, but in clearer lines, the
sickness and weariness and the hopelessness of the elder woman's face,
and Ben's consideration and watchful care of her took something out of
the ride. The rapture, the careless gayety, of their first gallop was
gone.

An impatience rose in the girl's soul. With the cruelty of youth she
unconsciously accus