cleft the azure sky. A
stretch of darker blue showed where the Missouri River, itself unseen,
broke through the Gate of the Mountains. The view took one away from the
affairs of men. On their side of the valley towered Mount Helena and
Mount Ascension with auriferous gulches separating and leading up to the
main range of the Rockies. As the foothills sank into the valley the
gulches, washed of their golden treasure, were transformed into the
streets of Helena--irregular, uneven, unpaved often; in the residence
part of the town young trees ambitiously spread their slender branches;
the main street and intersecting steeper ones were bordered with
business blocks as ambitious, in their way, as the transplanted trees.

"'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,'" quoted Winifred, softly.
"What a singer David was. But these mountains seem worthy of the grand
old psalms."

"Yes," assented Danvers, simply; and he liked her better on this second
meeting than he had at the dinner party--a crucial test where a woman is
concerned.

"I never weary of looking," she breathed.

"I think--I never should, either," he declared, and looked--at her!

Unconscious of his gaze, she absently jogged the carriage while the baby
slept, and Arthur, holding Danvers' hand, waited his turn.

"Mamma hates Helena," was his contribution.

"Sh-h-h!" warned Winifred.

"Then if I can't talk, make Uncle Phil show us a good time." The lad
turned appealing, beautiful eyes toward Danvers, so like his father's
that Philip drew him closer. "Tell us about the Crow Indians stealing
the Blackfeet ponies." This was a favorite story.

"Not to-day, laddie," refused Philip, gently. "Miss Blair would not----"

"Yes, I should," contradicted Winifred.

"Aunt Winnie will just love to hear that story," affirmed Arthur. "_I_
do! She tells me lots of stories. She was telling one when you came--the
one I like the best of all. It had a be-u-ti-ful trooper in it who
rescued her from a water-y grave!" The child's recital was as
melodramatic as his words. "He held her just so!" Arthur illustrated by
a tight clasp of the embarrassed girl. "Now, you tell one."

Philip saw that Winifred had a real interest in the old days, and while
relieving her embarrassment by gratifying the little story-teller, he
spoke of the Whoop Up Country.

Winifred had the rare gift of bringing out the best in people. Danvers
needed such incentive; although denying it, he was a good
conversa