's a pippin--a pippin. There isn't a
flaw in it!" said Toomey confidentially.

"Glad to hear it, Jap," Disston replied cordially, and presented him to
Mrs. Rathburn and her daughter.

The mother was a small woman of much distinction of appearance. A
well-poised manner, together with snow-white hair worn in a smooth
moderate roll away from her face, and very black eyes that had a rather
hard brilliancy, made her a person to be noticed. Having engineered her
own life successfully, her sole interest now lay in engineering that of
her daughter.

The last place Mrs. Rathburn would have selected to spend a summer was
an isolated ranch in the sagebrush, but propinquity, she knew, had done
wonders in friendships that had seemed hopelessly platonic, so, when
Hugh urged them to join him, and endeavored to impart some of his own
enthusiasm for the country, she assented.

In another way the daughter was not less noticeable than the mother,
though more typically southern, with her soft drawl and appealing
manner. Her skin had been so carefully protected since infancy that it
was of a dazzling whiteness that might never have known the sunshine.
Her feet were conspicuously small, her hands white, perfectly kept and
helpless. Nature had given her the bronze hair that dyers strive for,
and her brown eyes corresponded. She was as unlike the other alert
self-sufficient young persons of the "millionaire bunch"--who were
either dressed for utilitarian purposes only, or in finery of a past
mode as could well be imagined.

Miss Rathburn had managed to remain immaculate, while their faces were
smudged and streaked with soot and car dust, their hats awry and hair
dishevelled. Cool, serene, with a filmy veil thrown back from her hat
brim, she rocked idly, utterly unconscious of the eyes of the populace.

"The scenery is grand--Wagnerian! Out here one forgets one's ego,
doesn't one?" the lady in the Alpine hat was saying when, leading the
party like a bewhiskered gander, the gentleman from Canton, Ohio, dashed
to the end of the veranda with his camera ready for action.

"What a picturesque character!" she cried ecstatically, following. "And
see how beau-tee-fully she manages those horses!"

The cameras clicked as a young woman sitting very erect on the high
spring seat of a wagon and looking straight ahead of her came past the
hotel at a brisk trot, holding the reins over four spirited horses.

Disston straightened and asked quickly: