lowered to the bench the dish from
which he was eating, and stood up, too. The people of the house stared
at the group in the firelight with puzzled interest, at the beautiful
young girl, and at the tall, sunburned young man at her side. Langham
looked from his sister to Clay and back again, and laughed uneasily.

"Langham, I have been very bold," said Clay. "I have asked your sister
to marry me--and she has said that she would."

Langham flushed as red as his sister. He felt himself at a
disadvantage in the presence of a love as great and strong as he knew
this must be. It made him seem strangely young and inadequate. He
crossed over to his sister awkwardly and kissed her, and then took
Clay's hand, and the three stood together and looked at one another,
and there was no sign of doubt or question in the face of any one of
them. They stood so for some little time, smiling and exclaiming
together, and utterly unconscious of anything but their own delight and
happiness. MacWilliams watched them, his face puckered into odd
wrinkles and his eyes half-closed. Hope suddenly broke away from the
others and turned toward him with her hands held out.

"Have you nothing to say to me, Mr. MacWilliams?" she asked.

MacWilliams looked doubtfully at Clay, as though from force of habit he
must ask advice from his chief first, and then took the hands that she
held out to him and shook them up and down. His usual confidence
seemed to have forsaken him, and he stood, shifting from one foot to
the other, smiling and abashed.

"Well, I always said they didn't make them any better than you," he
gasped at last. "I was always telling him that, wasn't I?" He nodded
energetically at Clay. "And that's so; they don't make 'em any better
than you."

He dropped her hands and crossed over to Clay, and stood surveying him
with a smile of wonder and admiration.

"How'd you do it?" he demanded. "How did you do it? I suppose you
know," he asked sternly, "that you're not good enough for Miss Hope?
You know that, don't you?"

"Of course I know that," said Clay.

MacWilliams walked toward the door and stood in it for a second,
looking back at them over his shoulder. "They don't make them any
better than that," he reiterated gravely, and disappeared in the
direction of the horses, shaking his head and muttering his
astonishment and delight.

"Please give me some money," Hope said to Clay. "All the money you
have," she added, sm