and
claret-cup, partaken of while gazing across at Cheyenne Mountain, which
was at one of its most beautiful moments, all aerial blue streaked with
sharp sunshine at the summit. It was the one defect of the High Valley,
Clover thought, that it gave no glimpse of Cheyenne.

Luncheon No. 2 came a little later, with Marian Chase, whom every one
still called "Poppy" from preference and long habit. She was perfectly
well now, but she and her family had grown so fond of St. Helen's that
there was no longer any talk of their going back to the East. She had
just had some beautiful California plums sent her by an admirer, and
insisted on Clover's eating them with an accompaniment of biscuits and
"natural soda water."

"I want you and Alice Perham to come out next week for two nights," said
Clover, while engaged in this agreeable occupation. "My friend Mrs.
Browne arrives to-day, and she is by far the greatest treat we have ever
had to offer to any one since we lived in the Valley. You will delight
in her, I know. Could you come on Monday in the stage to the Ute Hotel,
if we sent the carryall over to meet you?"

"Why, of course. I never have any engagements when a chance comes for
going to the dear Valley; and Alice has none, I am pretty sure. It will
be perfectly delightful! Clover, you are an angel,--'the Angel of the
Penstamen' I mean to call you," glancing at the great sheaf of purple
and white flowers which Clover had brought. "It's a very good name. As
for Elsie, she is 'Our Lady of Raspberries;' I never saw such beauties
as she fetched in week before last."

Some very multifarious shopping for the two households followed, and by
that time it was two o'clock and they were quite ready for luncheon No.
3,--soup and sandwiches, procured at a restaurant. They were just coming
away when an open carriage passed them, silk-lined, with a crest on the
panel, jingling curb-chains, and silver-plated harnesses, all after the
latest modern fashion, and drawn by a pair of fine gray horses. Inside
was a young man, who returned a stiff bow to Clover's salutation, and a
gorgeously gowned young lady with rather a handsome face.

"Mr. and Mrs. Thurber Wade, I declare," observed Geoffrey. "I heard that
they were expected."

"Yes, Mrs. Wade is so pleased to have them come for the summer. We must
go and call some day, Geoff, when I happen to have on my best bonnet. Do
you think we ought to ask them out to the Valley?"

"That's just as yo