e of manner and perfect
candour. It was evidently not quite what she had looked for.

"Then you were never very fond of him?" she suggested.

"No," said Agatha reflectively, "since you have compelled me to say it,
I don't think now that I ever was really fond of him, though I don't
know how I can make that quite clear to you. It was only when I came
out here I--realised--Gregory. It was not the actual man I fell in
love with in England."

Sally turned her face away, for Agatha had, as it happened, made her
meaning perfectly plain. Somewhat to the latter's astonishment, she
showed no sign of resentment when she looked round again.

"Then," she said, "it is way better that you didn't marry him." She
paused, and seemed to search for words to express herself with. "I
knew all along all there was to know about Gregory--except that he was
going to marry you, and it was some time before I heard that--and I was
ready to take him. I was fond of him."

Agatha's heart went out to her. "Yes," she said simply, "it is a very
good thing that I let him go." Then she smiled. "That, however,
doesn't quite describe it, Sally."

Her companion flushed. "I couldn't have said that, but you don't quite
understand yet. I said I knew all there was to know about him--and you
never did. You made too much of him in England, and when you came out
here you only saw the things you didn't like in him. Still, they
weren't the only ones."

Agatha started at this, for she realised that part of it was certainly
true, and she could admit the possibility of the rest being equally
correct. After all, Gregory might possess a few good qualities that
she had never discovered.

"Perhaps I did," she admitted. "I don't think it matters now."

"They're all of them mixed," persisted Sally. "One can't expect too
much, but you can bear with a good deal when you're fond of any one."

Agatha sat silent awhile, for she was troubled by a certain sense of
probably wholesome confusion. It seemed to her that Sally had the
clearer vision. Love had given her discernment as well as charity,
and, not expecting perfection, it was the man's strong points she fixed
her eyes upon.

"Yes," she said at length, "I am glad you look at it that way, Sally."

The girl laughed. "Oh!" she said, "I've only seen one man on the
prairie who was quite white all through, and I had a kind of notion
that he was fond of you."

Agatha sat very still, but it cost her