and
well-favored, and he moved with a jaunty yet not ungraceful swing; but
it seemed to her that his bearing was merely the result of an empty
self-sufficiency. There was, she felt, no force behind it. Gregory was
smiling, and there was certainly a hint of sensuality in his face which
suggested that the man might sink into a self-indulgent coarseness.
Agatha remembered that she was still pledged to him and determinedly
brushed these thoughts aside.

Hawtrey entered a room where, with a paper in his hand, Wyllard sat
awaiting him.

"I asked you to drive over here because it would save time," said
Wyllard. "I have to go in to the railroad at once. Here's a draft of the
scheme I suggested. You had better tell me if there's anything you're
not quite satisfied with."

He threw the paper on the table, and Hawtrey took it up.

"I'm to farm and generally manage the Range on your behalf," said
Hawtrey after reading its contents. "My percentage to be deducted after
harvest. I'm empowered to sell out grain or horses as appears advisable,
and to have the use of teams and implements for my own place when
occasion requires it."

He looked up. "I've no fault to find with the thing, Harry. It's
generous."

"Then you had better sign it, and we'll get Hastings to witness it in a
minute or two. In the meanwhile there's a thing I have to ask you. How
do you stand in regard to Miss Ismay?"

Hawtrey pushed his chair back noisily. "That," he said, "is a subject on
which I'm naturally not disposed to give you any information. How does
it concern you?"

"In this way. Believing that your engagement must be broken off, I asked
Miss Ismay to marry me."

Hawtrey was clearly startled, but in a moment or two he smiled.

"Of course," he said, "she wouldn't. As a matter of fact, our engagement
isn't broken off. It's merely extended."

The two men looked at each other in silence for a moment or two, and
there was a curious hardness in Wyllard's eyes. Hawtrey spoke again.

"In view of what you have just told me, why did you want to put me, of
all people, in charge of the Range?" he asked.

"I'll be candid," answered Wyllard. "For one thing, you held on when I
was slipping off the trestle that day in British Columbia. For another,
you'll make nothing of your own holding, and if you run the Range as it
ought to be run it will put a good many dollars into your pocket,
besides relieving me of a big anxiety. If you're to marry Miss Ismay,
I'