nsiderably since then.

She said nothing about what she had heard to Hawtrey when she entered
the second room. It was cosily warm and brightly lighted, and the
little table was laid out for two with a daintiness very uncommon on
the prairie. It was a change for Sally to be waited on and have a meal
set before her which she had not made with her own fingers, and she
sank into a chair with a smile of appreciation.

"It's real nice, Gregory," she said. "Supper's never quite the same
when you've had to stand over the stove ever so long getting it ready."
She sighed whimsically. "When I have to do that after working hard all
day I don't want to eat it."

The man felt compassionate. Sally, as he was aware, had to work
unusually hard at the little desolate homestead where she and her
mother perforce undertook a good many duties that do not generally fall
to a woman's share. Creighton, who was getting an old man, was of
grasping nature, and only hired assistance when it was indispensibly
necessary.

"Well," he said, "I'm not particularly fond of cooking either."

Sally glanced at him with a provocative smile, for he had given her a
lead. "Then," she said, "why don't you get somebody else to do it for
you?"

This was, as the man recognised, almost painfully direct, but there was
no doubt that Sally looked very pretty with the faint flush of colour
in her cheeks and the tantalising light in her eyes.

"As a matter of fact, that's a thing I've been thinking over rather
often the last few months," he said, and laughed. "It's rather a pity
you don't seem to like cooking, Sally."

Sally appeared to consider this. "Oh," she said, "it depends a good
deal on who it's for."

Hawtrey became suddenly serious for a moment or two. There was no
doubt that he would at one time have considered it impossible that he
should marry a girl of Sally's description, and even now he had
misgivings. He had, however, almost made up his mind, and he was not
exactly pleased that the proprietor's wife came in with the meal just
then, and stayed to talk awhile.

When she went out he watched Sally with close and what he fancied was
unobtrusive attention while she ate, and though he was sensible of the
indelicacy of this, he was once more relieved to find that she did
nothing that was actually repugnant to him. After all, there was a
certain daintiness about the girl, and her frank appreciation of the
good things set before her only amu