ully agree with you, I can at least admire your point of
view," she said amiably. "Is it Western--or merely human?"

He laughed.

"Shall we assume that the one implies the other? That would be in
accordance with your point of view, wouldn't it?"

"Yes; but it would be a distinct reversal of yours. Truth belongs to
another and simpler time than ours. We are conventional first and
everything else afterward."

"Are we?" he queried. "Some few hundreds or thousands of us may be; but
for the remainder of our eighty-odd millions the conventions are things
to be put on and off like Sunday garments. And even the chosen few of
us brush them aside upon occasion; ignore them utterly, as we two are
ignoring them at this moment."

She proved his assertion by continuing to talk to him, and the
dining-car was emptying itself when they realized that there is an end
even to a most leisurely dinner. Ford paid the steward as they left the
car, but in the Pullman he went back to first principles and insisted
upon some kind of a definite accounting for the lost purse.

"Now you will tell me now much I threw away for you, and I'll pay my
debt," he said, when she had hospitably made room for him in the
opposing seat of her section.

"Indeed, you will do nothing of the kind!" she asserted. "You will give
me your card--we're going back to the conventions now--and when we reach
the city you may lend me enough money to take me up-town. And to-morrow
morning my brother will pay you back."

He gave in because he had to.

"You are much more lenient than I deserve. Really, you ought to stick me
good and hard for my awkwardness. It would serve me right."

"I am considering the motive," she said almost wistfully, he fancied.
"We have drifted very far from all those quiet anchorages of courtesy
and helpfulness. If we lived simpler lives--"

He smiled at the turn she was giving it.

"Are you, too, bitten with the fad of the moment, 'the simple life'?" he
asked. "Let me assure you that it is beautiful only when you can look
down upon it from the safe altitude of a comfortable income. I know,
because I've been living it for the past two years."

She looked as if she were sorry for him.

"That is rank heresy!" she declared. "Our forefathers had the better of
us in many ways, and their simpler manner of living was one of them.
They had time for all the little courtesies and kindnesses that make
life truly worth living."

Ford's laugh was bo