d dignified. He acknowledged the introductions to the rest of
the party gracefully, touched his hat with the ease of one to the manner
born, and rode away, flashing her one gleam of a smile that told her he
was glad of the meeting; but throughout the brief interview there had
been an air of question and hostility between the two men, Forsythe and
Gardley. Forsythe surveyed Gardley rudely, almost insolently, as if his
position beside the lady gave him rights beyond the other, and he
resented the coming of the stranger. Gardley's gaze was cold, too, as he
met the look, and his eyes searched Forsythe's face keenly, as though
they would find out what manner of man was riding with his friend.

When he was gone Margaret had the feeling that he was somehow
disappointed, and once she turned in the saddle and looked wistfully
after him; but he was riding furiously into the distance, sitting his
horse as straight as an arrow and already far away upon the desert.

"Your friend is a reckless rider," said Forsythe, with a sneer in his
voice that Margaret did not like, as they watched the speck in the
distance clear a steep descent from the mesa at a bound and disappear
from sight in the mesquite beyond.

"Isn't he fine-looking? Where did you find him, Miss Earle?" asked Mrs.
Temple, eagerly. "I wish I'd asked him to join us. He left so suddenly I
didn't realize he was going."

Margaret felt a wondering and pleasant sense of possession and pride in
Gardley as she watched, but she quietly explained that the young
stranger was from the East, and that he was engaged in some kind of
cattle business at a distance from Ashland. Her manner was reserved, and
the matter dropped. She naturally felt a reluctance to tell how her
acquaintance with Gardley began. It seemed something between themselves.
She could fancy the gushing Mrs. Temple saying, "How romantic!" She was
that kind of a woman. It was evident that she was romantically inclined
herself, for she used her fine eyes with effect on the young officer who
rode with her, and Margaret found herself wondering what kind of a
husband she had and what her mother would think of a woman like this.

There was no denying that the luxury of the ranch was a happy relief
from the simplicity of life at the Tanners'. Iced drinks and cushions
and easy-chairs, feasting and music and laughter! There were books, too,
and magazines, and all the little things that go to make up a cultured
life; and yet t