but just the same absolutely fearless unconscious
assurance and nerve and pluck. I suppose that is why I love him so
much--I mean I did love him, Mamma, because, of course, I don't now; I
am quite indifferent, as you know.

On our way back to lunch we took a drive round the city. There is not
a blade of living thing rowing but the sage brush. It is a desolation
beyond description, and clouds of dust. But everything seems alive
and there is no gloom or depression. The hotel was full of bustle and
movement, and groups of men were talking together as if some news had
come in, and the Senator presently told us that there had been rather a
row at the dance hall after we left, and the four villainous looking men
we had seen had "done a bit of shootin,'" but no one was hurt much,
and they had left to-day for no one knows where. He says this class of
desperadoes are like a pestilence; whenever they descend trouble of
sorts brews, and the chief of them is a man called Curly Grainger--the
"lowest yellow dog out of hell."

In the afternoon we paid some calls on the ladies who had dined with
us, and you can't think what dear little homes they have, looking like
chicken houses outside, and inside cosey and comfortable; and they were
all so kind and hospitable and made us feel welcomed and honoured. And
these are real manners, Mamma--that politeness which comes from the
heart.

We were allowed to dress as in New York for our dinner party, given by
Octavia's friend at his shack, and to see the girls and Lola, and
indeed us all, looking like Paris fashion plates in dainty clothes and
feathered hats seemed so quaint; but when we got inside it was not out
of place.

Such a person of refinement he must be! The outside was made of boards
like the rest, but inside it had bookcases and comfortable chairs and
cosey sofas, and the nice look of a man's room who is no fool and reads
books and thinks thoughts. There were several more lovely creatures whom
we had not met before, altogether about eighteen the party was, and as
the dining-room only held ten, naturally the rest sat on boxes, and
the table was elongated with a packing case. But the fun we had! As
delightful as the evening with the Squirrels; each of these pets
out-doing the other in remarkable Western phrases and stories, and all
with that whimsical fine sense of humour that can see the fun even in
themselves. I wish I could remember the sentences, but they are too
difficult, onl