ett as to character. But Archer and
his household should be here by Friday. Then he'll have to behave."

Willett, of course, knew that Archer had been sent for, was coming up
and would probably bring Mrs. Archer and Lilian. According to his
estimate, too, the family should be here some time Friday. Meantime he
had a fortress to reduce whose garrison had already flung out signals
of distress. "Evelyn Darrah may have been a flirt at 'Frisco," said
Mrs. Crook, "and she's had more experience than most girls of her
years, but she's not heartless, and that good-looking scamp knows it."

"Have you talked with Mrs. Darrah?" asked a fair friend at a venture.

"Talked with Kate Darrah! Of course I've talked with her! and told her
just what people are saying and thinking, but Kate Darrah was just such
a flirt when she was a girl. Kate Darrah many a time pulled the wool
over her mother's eyes, and now hers is being pulled the same way. Evvy
leads her mother by the nose."

"Colonel Darrah, then," was the suggestion.

"Dicky Darrah!" laughed Mrs. Crook, in merry disdain. "Dicky Darrah
never dares oppose Evvy--let alone his wife. Kate Darrah says it just
serves Hal Willett right. It's no fault of hers that he's daft about
Evvy, who's simply bent on giving him a lesson he richly deserves. When
the Archers come she'll drop it--and him."

But the Archers came sooner than any one about Prescott deemed likely
at all. Somebody said, and more than one somebody thought, that Mrs.
Archer had had more than a hint as to what was going on. But never did
Mrs. Archer look or admit it. The mail riders had resumed their trips.
The paymaster had made his visit to McDowell and had safely traversed
the Mazatzal and distributed his shekels at Almy. Almost every day
there had been comings and goings, and though no letters bearing
Willett's superscription went to Almy except by regular mail, even
these, it seems, the pressure of his duties made brief and unlike what
Lilian had looked for, so that the radiance had gone from her sweet
face almost as quickly as it came. Even the girl who bravely insists
that the beloved one is beyond doubt, and above suspicion, and all that
is perfect, as Lilian strove to insist--even she will feel in her heart
of hearts that there has been neglect, and neglect crushes.

Archer saw and said nothing but "Get ready as quick as we can." They
were looked for Friday noon. They were ushered into the general's
hospitable quar