Princess
herself; not at all like the hoydenish child of eleven who had waved her
sunbonnet at him in parting three years before.

The sight of the train as it slowed up sent a queer inward quiver of
expectancy through her, and her cheeks were flushed with eagerness as
she leaned forward watching for him. With a nervous gesture, she put her
hand up to her hair-ribbons to make sure that her bows were in place,
and then clutched the coral necklace. Then Betty's sermon flashed across
her mind, and the thought that she had done just like the self-conscious
girl at school brought a distressed pucker between her eyebrows. But the
next instant she forgot all about it. She forgot the princess-like way
in which she was to step from the carriage, the dignity with which she
was to offer Phil her hand, and the words wherewith she was to welcome
him. She had caught sight of a wide-brimmed gray hat over the heads of
the crowd, and a face, bronzed and handsome, almost as dear in its
familiar outlines as Jack's or Holland's. Her carefully rehearsed
actions flew to the winds, as, regardless of the strangers all about,
she sprang from the carriage and ran along bareheaded in the sun. And
Phil, glancing around him for the bridal party that was to meet him, was
surprised beyond measure when this little apparition from the Arizona
Wigwam caught him by the hand.

"Bless my soul, it's the little Vicar!" he exclaimed. "Why, it's like
getting back home to see _you_! And how you've grown, and how really
civilized you are!"

So he _had_ remembered her. He was glad to see her. With her face
glowing and her feet fairly dancing, she led him to the carriage,
pouring out a flood of information as they went, about The Locusts and
the wedding and the people they passed, and how lovely everything was in
the Valley, till he said, with a twinkle in his eyes: "You're the same
enthusiastic little soul that you used to be, aren't you? I hope you'll
speak as good a word for me at The Locusts as you did at Lee's ranch. I
am taking it as a good omen that you were sent to conduct me into this
happy land. You made a success of it that other time; somehow I'm sure
you will this time."

All the way to the house Mary sat and beamed on him as she talked,
thinking how much older he looked, and yet how friendly and brotherly he
still was. She introduced him to Mrs. Sherman with a proud,
grandmotherly air of proprietorship, and took a personal pride in every
compli