n. Louise
then showed him her flower garden, ablaze with poppies, nasturtiums,
sweet peas, and other blossoms he could not name; and the orchard
where apples and pears and plums weighed the branches. She was
remarkably beautiful, he thought; and was quite sure the roses in the
garden had no petals pinker or softer than her cheeks, and was sure
the water rippling in the little, grassy orchard canals was no clearer
than her brown eyes, or the sky more serene than her brow. She was not
in the least proud or vain or haughty, as he imagined when he first
beheld her at the ford. He had had doubts of that after her kindly
treatment of his dying dog Mike. And now to-day he knew that such an
opinion did her an injustice, was absurd.

Louise, too, was thinking as they strolled about. Which of the two
girls on Sarita Creek did he love? For Charlie Menocal had said that
he was infatuated with one. Charlie Menocal! Her cheeks grew warm.
What he had boasted in regard to herself, and doubtless Mr. Bryant
had softened the truth, filled her with anger. She would treat the
insufferable wretch differently hereafter. And very likely his gossip
of the engineer's feelings for one of the homesteaders was likewise a
falsehood, though there was no reason in the world why Mr. Bryant
shouldn't love one of them if he chose. She had never met them. They
were very nice girls, she imagined. She had intended to call, but
something had always prevented. As for Mr. Bryant, he seemed a very
estimable young man, and good company, and an engineer of ability and
will.

She continued to speculate after he and Dave had departed on the
stage, with a vague sense of missing them. That, she reasoned, was
because Lee Bryant had "personality." And presently her thoughts
followed him. Lee's mind, however, was ranging back to Sarita Creek;
but Dave's was loyally with the lady of Diamond Creek ranch, as was
manifest when he murmured thickly, having fallen asleep during the
warm ride:

"No more chicken, thank you--or jelly--or apple pie."

CHAPTER XI

In Kennard next morning Lee Bryant betook himself to a civil
engineering firm, which he engaged to print a number of sets of
blue-prints from his tracings, one set to be ready for delivery early
that afternoon. Then while his suit of gray clothes, from out of his
suit-case, was being pressed, he and Dave visited a florist, purchased
a wreath of lilies-of-the-valley that Dave chose, and went to the
cemetery