turned to
Danvers with a heavy sigh.

"Latimer's heart is in bad condition. He's going to have trouble with
it. And the nervous strain he lives under so constantly is more than I
can reckon with. If he could rest at home--but I know how it was when
they lived at Fort Benton!"

"Arthur has changed," said Danvers, sadly.

"I'll never forget," said the doctor, speaking more freely than ever
before, "the time when Latimer first discovered that Eva did not care
for him. He took it all to himself, and was broken-hearted because he
had failed to keep her affections. Think of it!"

"Did she ever care for him?" Danvers could not resist asking.

"I hardly think so. I always had an idea that her heart--what there is
of it--was captured by an army officer." He looked slyly at his
companion as they walked through the gloom.

"Nothing so low in rank as a second lieutenant!" evaded Danvers.

"You were fortunate, after all, Philip, though it would have been better
for Eva. She needed a master--and she took our gentle, sensitive,
chivalrous Arthur! He will break; break like fine tempered steel when
the strain becomes too great."

[Illustration]

Chapter II

Charlie Blair's Sister

The summer sped hot and with but little rain. Some ten days before the
state convention, the Doctor and Danvers went to Helena. A strong
opposition to Judge Latimer's renomination had developed, which was not
traceable to any definite source. Although Danvers avowed a dislike for
politics, in reality he had the inherent instinct for political life
characteristic of the upper-class Englishman, and he threw himself into
the maelstrom with all his forces well in hand. Office-seeking was
disgusting to him, but the fight for his friend seemed worth the effort.

In the midst of the political excitement, Mrs. Latimer gave a
dinner-party, and Philip Danvers could not refuse his invitation
without causing comment, and, what was of more consequence to his
independent nature, wounding his friend Arthur. He had met Eva Latimer
occasionally when they lived at Fort Benton, but had preferred to lure
Arthur to his own quarters, or the doctor's office, for an old-time
visit, rather than invade the formalities of the Latimer residence.
Since his friend had been on the supreme bench Danvers had not often
seen Eva, and now the great house in the suburbs of Helena--so much more
elaborate than Latimer could afford, impressed him, as it had on
previous calls