ter. And Fay Larkin had been a lonely, a solitary
elf of the sage, not at all an ordinary child, and exquisitely shy
with strangers. She watched Lassiter with great, round, grave eyes, but
showed no fear. The rider gave Jane a favorable report of cattle and
horses; and as he took the seat to which she invited him, little Fay
edged as much as half an inch nearer. Jane replied to his look of
inquiry and told Fay's story. The rider's gray, earnest gaze troubled
her. Then he turned to Fay and smiled in a way that made Jane doubt her
sense of the true relation of things. How could Lassiter smile so at a
child when he had made so many children fatherless? But he did smile,
and to the gentleness she had seen a few times he added something that
was infinitely sad and sweet. Jane's intuition told her that Lassiter
had never been a father, but if life ever so blessed him he would be a
good one. Fay, also, must have found that smile singularly winning. For
she edged closer and closer, and then, by way of feminine capitulation,
went to Jane, from whose side she bent a beautiful glance upon the
rider.

Lassiter only smiled at her.

Jane watched them, and realized that now was the moment she should
seize, if she was ever to win this man from his hatred. But the step was
not easy to take. The more she saw of Lassiter the more she respected
him, and the greater her respect the harder it became to lend herself to
mere coquetry. Yet as she thought of her great motive, of Tull, and
of that other whose name she had schooled herself never to think of
in connection with Milly Erne's avenger, she suddenly found she had no
choice. And her creed gave her boldness far beyond the limit to which
vanity would have led her.

"Lassiter, I see so little of you now," she said, and was conscious of
heat in her cheeks.

"I've been riding hard," he replied.

"But you can't live in the saddle. You come in sometimes. Won't you come
here to see me--oftener?"

"Is that an order?"

"Nonsense! I simply ask you to come to see me when you find time."

"Why?"

The query once heard was not so embarrassing to Jane as she might have
imagined. Moreover, it established in her mind a fact that there existed
actually other than selfish reasons for her wanting to see him. And as
she had been bold, so she determined to be both honest and brave.

"I've reasons--only one of which I need mention," she answered. "If it's
possible I want to change you toward my peo