nights shut up
with bulky books, while he also apparently became involved in an
extensive correspondence with the cities. There were, however, times
when Miss Deringham surprised him standing still and gazing into
vacancy, which was distinctly unusual with him, but the girl, who had
once or twice noticed his eyes fixed upon her and signs of an inward
conflict in his face, was not displeased. She could arrive at a
tolerably accurate deduction as well as most young women.

In the meanwhile Seaforth had gone down to Vancouver, and Deringham
still appeared content to linger at Somasco. He had, his daughter
knew, been ordered a lengthy rest, and it was evident that the
tranquillity of the mountain ranch was benefiting him physically,
though now and then the girl noticed that his face was anxious when
communications from England reached him. She was also, for no reason
she was willing to admit, content to remain a little longer at Somasco.

One night when she was sitting meditatively in the room set apart for
her use, Alton passed the half-opened door, and noticing the curious
slowness of his pace she signed him to enter. She had, somewhat to the
indignation of Mrs. Margery, taken the room in hand, and with the aid
of a few sundries surreptitiously brought from Vancouver with
Seaforth's connivance, made a transformation in its aspect. A red
curtain hung behind the door. There were a few fine furs which
Seaforth had collected here and there about the ranch upon the floor,
and Alton, who had just returned from a ride of forty miles through the
mire and rain, stopped a moment upon the threshold. He was a man of
quick perceptions, and all he saw seemed stamped with the personality
of its occupant.

It was dainty, and essentially feminine, and he became, for perhaps the
first time, uneasily conscious of his own solid masculine proportions
and bespattered garments as he glanced deprecatingly at the girl. She
lay with lithe gracefulness in a basket chair, very collected and very
pretty, while he dimly understood that the fact that she did not move
but only smiled at him implied a good deal. A brightness flashed into
his eyes and sank out of them again.

"Come in and sit down," she said, "I have seen very little of you
lately, and you seem tired. Half-an-hour's casual chatter will do you
no harm, although it may appear to you a terrible waste of time."

Alton came in and dropped into a chair which creaked beneath him.