ment and a marked degree of admiration.

The man was of medium height, slight, with a putty complexion; cold,
pale-blue eyes; pale, straw-colored hair, and a look of self-indulgence
around his rather weak mouth. He was dressed in a city business suit of
the latest cut, however, and looked as much out of place in that crude
little house as did Margaret Earle herself in her simple gown of
dark-blue crepe and her undeniable air of style and good taste.

His eyes, as they regarded her, had in them a smile that the girl
instinctively resented. Was it a shade too possessive and complacently
sure for a stranger?

The dog, a large collie, had great, liquid, brown eyes, menacing or
loyal, as circumstances dictated, and regarded her with an air of brief
indecision. She felt she was being weighed in the balance by both pairs
of eyes. Of the two the girl preferred the dog.

Perhaps the dog understood, for he came a pace nearer and waved his
plumy tail tentatively. For the dog she felt a glow of friendliness at
once, but for the man she suddenly, and most unreasonably, of course,
conceived one of her violent and unexpected dislikes.

Into this tableau bustled Mrs. Tanner. "Well, now, I didn't go to leave
you by your lonesome all this time," she apologized, wiping her hands on
her apron, "but them beans boiled clean over, and I hed to put 'em in a
bigger kettle. You see, I put in more beans 'count o' you bein' here,
an' I ain't uset to calca'latin' on two extry." She looked happily from
the man to the girl and back again.

"Mr. West, I 'spose, o' course, you interjuced yerself? Bein' a
preacher, you don't hev to stan' on ceremony like the rest of mankind.
You 'ain't? Well, let me hev the pleasure of interjucin' our new
school-teacher, Miss Margaret Earle. I 'spect you two 'll be awful
chummy right at the start, both bein' from the East that way, an' both
hevin' ben to college."

Margaret Earle acknowledged the bow with a cool little inclination of
her head. She wondered why she didn't hate the garrulous woman who
rattled on in this happy, take-it-for-granted way; but there was
something so innocently pleased in her manner that she couldn't help
putting all her wrath on the smiling man who came forward instantly with
a low bow and a voice of fulsome flattery.

"Indeed, Miss Earle, I assure you I am happily surprised. I am sure Mrs.
Tanner's prophecy will come true and we shall be the best of friends.
When they told me the new