future. Here you are, derived from the lawless West,
yet taking on the culture and restraint of the East so readily that you
seem not in the least related to--"

He checked himself at this point, and she said: "My mother is not as rough
as she seems, Mr. Cavanagh."

"She must be more of the woman than appears, or she could not have borne
such a daughter. But do you feel your relationship to her? Tell me
honestly, for you interest me."

"I didn't at first, but I do now. I begin to understand her, and, besides,
I feel in myself certain things that are in her, though I think I am more
like the Wetherfords. My father's family home was in Maryland."

Ross could have talked on all night, so alluring was the girl's dimly-seen
yet warmly-felt figure at his side, but a sense of danger and a knowledge
that he should be riding led him at last to say: "It is getting chill, we
must go in; but before we do so, let me say how much I've enjoyed seeing
you again. I hope the doctor will make favorable report on your mother's
case. You'll write me the result of the examination, won't you?"

"If you wish me to."

"I shall be most anxious to know."

They were standing very near to each other at the moment, and the ranger,
made very sensitive to woman's charm by his lonely life, shook with
newly-created love of her. A suspicion, a hope that beneath her cultivated
manner lay the passionate nature of her mother gave an added force to his
desire. He was sorely tempted to touch her, to test her; but her sweet
voice, a little sad and perfectly unconscious of evil, calmed him. She
said:

"I hope to persuade my mother to leave the Forks. All the best people
there are against us. Some of them have been very cruel to her and to me,
and, besides, I despise and fear the men who come to our table."

"You must not exchange words with them," he all but commanded. "Beware of
Gregg; he is a vile lot; do not trust him for an instant. Do not permit
any of those loafers to talk with you, for if you do they will go away to
defame you. I know them. They are unspeakably vile. It makes me angry to
think that Gregg and his like have the right to speak to you every day
while I can only see you at long intervals."

His heat betrayed the sense of proprietorship which he had begun to feel,
in spite of his resolution. But the girl only perceived his solicitation,
his friendly interest, and she answered: "I keep away from them all I
can."

"You are right to