a
desire to know the proud, shy girl, made a companion of her; this was
a new experience for Lyle, and was fast deepening her admiration for
Miss Gladden into confidence and regard.

Miss Gladden watched Lyle now, as she came up the mountain path, as
fleet of foot and graceful in every motion as a deer, her head thrown
proudly back, her wavy hair rippling over her shoulders to her waist,
and shining in the sunlight like fine spun gold.

"Oh, Miss Gladden," she exclaimed, as, having reached the group of
pines, she threw herself carelessly at the foot of one of them, "the
solitude and isolation which you have prized so highly are to be
invaded by two new boarders of masculine gender."

A slight frown gathered on Miss Gladden's face, at the prospect of
intruders thus encroaching upon the mountain retreat which she was
beginning to regard as hers exclusively. Lyle, watching her, saw the
frown, and continued, her eyes dancing with mischief:

"They are city gentlemen, too, from the east; from Chicago and from
Boston, only think of the honor conferred upon us! They have come from
the land of civilization and culture to the wild west, to see how we
barbarians live; at least that is the object of one of them who is out
on a pleasure trip, for that is usually the meaning of western
pleasure trips."

"Lyle, are you not rather severe? They come for the sake of the
scenery, or as I have, for rest."

"A few for rest perhaps, but scenery? nonsense! Look at the majority
of your 'western stories,' as they are called; how much is there in
them of scenery? A few lines here and there, but pages devoted to
descriptions of western life with its ignorance and uncouthness."

"But stories of western life usually contain a great deal of
originality and piquancy; that is why they are popular."

"Possibly," said Lyle dryly, "but I have seen very little originality
in the life I have led here. It may seem original to outsiders; it is
monotonous enough to those who live it, year after year. The scenery
of the west is grand, I love it, and if I could see it with such eyes
as yours, eyes accustomed to beauty in all its infinite kinds and
degrees, and with a mind cultivated, fed on the choicest thought than
can be culled not only from our own country and in our own tongue, but
from other countries and in other tongues as well, I would appreciate
the beauty about me more keenly than I can now; but I despise this
life in which I have been rear