ld
smite together her chubby hands and cry out, "How romantic!"

"How did it happen?" she continued. "He didn't rescue you over a
cliff, or that sort of thing, did he? Do say that he did! And you
never said a word about it, Mr. Corliss. Do tell me. I'm just dying
to know!"

"Oh, nothing like that," he hastened to answer. "Nothing much. I,
that is we--"

He felt a sinking as Frona interrupted. There was no telling what this
remarkable girl might say.

"He gave me of his hospitality, that was all," she said. "And I can
vouch for his fried potatoes; while for his coffee, it is
excellent--when one is very hungry."

"Ingrate!" he managed to articulate, and thereby to gain a smile, ere
he was introduced to a cleanly built lieutenant of the Mounted Police,
who stood by the fireplace discussing the grub proposition with a
dapper little man very much out of place in a white shirt and stiff
collar.

Thanks to the particular niche in society into which he happened to be
born, Corliss drifted about easily from group to group, and was much
envied therefore by Del Bishop, who sat stiffly in the first chair he
had dropped into, and who was waiting patiently for the first person to
take leave that he might know how to compass the manoeuvre. In his
mind's eye he had figured most of it out, knew just how many steps
required to carry him to the door, was certain he would have to say
good-by to Frona, but did not know whether or not he was supposed to
shake hands all around. He had just dropped in to see Frona and say
"Howdee," as he expressed it, and had unwittingly found himself in
company.

Corliss, having terminated a buzz with a Miss Mortimer on the decadence
of the French symbolists, encountered Del Bishop. But the pocket-miner
remembered him at once from the one glimpse he had caught of Corliss
standing by his tent-door in Happy Camp. Was almighty obliged to him
for his night's hospitality to Miss Frona, seein' as he'd ben
side-tracked down the line; that any kindness to her was a kindness to
him; and that he'd remember it, by God, as long as he had a corner of a
blanket to pull over him. Hoped it hadn't put him out. Miss Frona'd
said that bedding was scarce, but it wasn't a cold night (more blowy
than crisp), so he reckoned there couldn't 'a' ben much shiverin'. All
of which struck Corliss as perilous, and he broke away at the first
opportunity, leaving the pocket-miner yearning for the door.

But Dave H