coldly.

"No--that is--well, only in a way."

"Let go of my hands, please."

"No."

"Very well. What was she like, this other Evelyn?"

"Like--like you, dearest."

"Oh, really!"

"Listen, Eve; do you remember once five years ago when a train stopped
at the top of the Saddle Pass out in Colorado? There was a hot-box. It
was twilight in the valleys, but up there it was still half daylight and
half starlight. A little way off, in the shadow of the rocks, there was
a camp-fire burning."

"Yes, I remember," she answered softly. "I thought we had been held up
by train-robbers and I went out to the back platform to see. I didn't
say anything to papa, because it might have scared him, you know."

"Of course," said Wade, with a smile.

"And so I went out and saw the track stretching back down the hill, with
the starlight gleaming on the rails, and--"

"And the mountains in the west all purple against the sky."

"Yes. And there was a breeze blowing and it was chilly out there. So I
was going back into the car when a dreadful-looking man appeared, oh,
a--a fearsome-looking man, really!"

"Was he?" asked Wade, somewhat lamely.

"Oh, yes! And I thought, of course, he was a robber or a highwayman or
something."

"And--he wasn't?" asked Wade, eagerly.

"No." She shook her head. "No, he was something much worse."

"Oh! What?"

"He was a deceiver, a--a Don Juan. He made love to me and made me
promise never to forget him, and he promised to come and get me some
day. That was five years ago. Why didn't you come?"

"Eve! Then--you knew? You've known all along?"

She fell to laughing, swaying away from him in the moonlight.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, wonderingly.

"Why didn't you ask me? Yes, I knew from the moment I peeked in your
window that day."

"Think of that! And I was sure you didn't remember at all. And now,
after all that time, I've got you again, dear! It's wonderful!"

"Not so fast, please," she said, sternly. "You forgot me once--"

"I never forgot you."

"And you may do it again."

"I didn't forget you, dear. I still have that lilac you threw me. I--"

"You mean the one I dropped?" she asked, innocently.

"It was a week later that we found gold, Eve, and I named the mine for
you. I worked hard that year, and--well, I'll be honest; I didn't forget
you; you were always a sort of vision of loveliness in my memory;
but--there was so much to do--and--"

"And you changed your mind.