e who regards himself of far more importance than all who may
be watching him. The boys in the yard stopped their ball-game, and the
girls huddled close in whispering groups and drew near to the door. He
was a young man from a ranch near the fort some thirty miles away, and
he had brought an invitation for the new school-teacher to come over to
dinner on Friday evening and stay until the following Monday morning.
The invitation was from his sister, the wife of a wealthy cattleman
whose home and hospitality were noted for miles around. She had heard of
the coming of the beautiful young teacher, and wanted to attach her to
her social circle.

The young man was deference itself to Margaret, openly admiring her as
he talked, and said the most gracious things to her; and then, while she
was answering the note, he smiled over at Rosa Rogers, who had slipped
into her seat and was studiously preparing her algebra with the book
upside down.

Margaret, looking up, caught Rosa's smiling glance and the tail end of a
look from the young man's eyes, and felt a passing wonder whether he had
ever met the girl before. Something in the boldness of his look made her
feel that he had not. Yet he was all smiles and deference to herself,
and his open admiration and pleasure that she was to come to help
brighten this lonely country, and that she was going to accept the
invitation, was really pleasant to the girl, for it was desolate being
tied down to only the Tanner household and the school, and she welcomed
any bit of social life.

The young man had light hair, combed very smooth, and light-blue eyes.
They were bolder and handsomer than the minister's, but the girl had a
feeling that they were the very same cold color. She wondered at her
comparison, for she liked the handsome young man, and in spite of
herself was a little flattered at the nice things he had said to her.
Nevertheless, when she remembered him afterward it was always with that
uncomfortable feeling that if he hadn't been so handsome and polished in
his appearance he would have seemed just a little bit like that
minister, and she couldn't for the life of her tell why.

After he was gone she looked back at Rosa, and there was a narrowing of
the girl's eyes and a frown of hate on her brows. Margaret turned with a
sigh back to her school problem--what to do with Rosa Rogers?

But Rosa did not stay in the school-house. She slipped out and walked
arm in arm with Amanda Bounds