mistress had guessed right in their surmise as
to Nora Darling's popularity in the cow country. She made an immediate
and pronounced hit. It was astonishing how many errands the men found to
take them to "the house," as they called the building where the mistress
of the ranch dwelt. Bannister served for a time as an excellent
excuse. Judging from the number of the inquiries which the men found
it necessary to make as to his progress, Helen would have guessed
him exceedingly popular with her riders. Having a sense of humor, she
mentioned this to McWilliams one day.

He laughed, and tried to turn it into a compliment to his mistress. But
she would have none of it.

"I know better, sir. They don't come here to see me. Nora is the
attraction, and I have sense enough to know it. My nose is quite out of
joint," she laughed.

Mac looked with gay earnestness at the feature she had mentioned.
"There's a heap of difference in noses," he murmured, apparently apropos
of nothing.

"That's another way of telling me that Nora's pug is the sweetest thing
you ever saw," she charged.

"I ain't half such a bad actor as some of the boys," he deprecated.

"Meaning in what way?"

"The Nora Darling way."

He pronounced her name so much as if it were a caress that his mistress
laughed, and he joined in it.

"It's your fickleness that is breaking my heart, though I knew I was
lost as soon as I saw your beatific look on the day you got back with
Nora. The first week I came none of you could do enough for me. Now it's
all Nora, darling." She mimicked gayly his intonation.

"Well, ma'am, it's this way," explained the foreman with a grin.
"Y'u're right pleasant and friendly, but the boys have got a savvy way
down deep that y'u'd shuck that friendliness awful sudden if any of them
dropped around with 'Object, Matrimony' in their manner. Consequence
is, they're loaded down to the ground with admiration of their boss,
but they ain't presumptuous enough to expaict any more. I had notions,
mebbe, I'd cut more ice, me being not afflicted with bashfulness. My
notions faded, ma'am, in about a week."

"Then Nora came?" she laughed.

"No, ma'am, they had gone glimmering long before she arrived. I was just
convalescent enough to need being cheered up when she drapped in."

"And are you cheered up yet?" his mistress asked.

He took off his dusty hat and scratched his head. "I ain't right
certain, yet, ma'am. Soon as I know I'm consoled, I'll