anaemic young men all her life,
and the last three years had made her perfectly familiar with that look
in a young man's eyes. She met it with impatient disfavour founded
chiefly upon the young man's need of a decent hair-cut, a less flowery
tie and a tailored suit. When he confessed that he did not know Mr
Britton Hunter by sight he ceased to exist so far as Lorraine was
concerned. She decided that he also was new to the place and therefore
perfectly useless to her.

The postmaster himself--Lorraine was cheered by his spectacles, his
shirt sleeves, and his chin whiskers, which made him look the part--was
better informed. He, too, eyed her curiously when she said "My father,
Mr Britton Hunter," but he made no comment on the relationship. He
gave her a telegram and a letter from the General Delivery. The
telegram, she suspected, was the one she had sent to her dad announcing
the date of her arrival. The postmaster advised her to get a "livery
rig" and drive out to the ranch, since it might be a week or two before
any one came in from the Quirt. Lorraine thanked him graciously and
departed for the livery stable.

The man in charge there chewed tobacco meditatively and told her that
his teams were all out. If she was a mind to wait over a day or two,
he said, he might maybe be able to make the trip. Lorraine took a long
look at the structure which he indicated as the hotel.

"I think I'll walk," she said calmly.

"_Walk?_" The stableman stopped chewing and stared at her. "It's some
consider'ble of a walk. It's all of eighteen mile--I dunno but twenty,
time y'get to the house."

"I have frequently walked twenty-five or thirty miles. I am a member
of the Sierra Club in Los Angeles. We seldom take hikes of less than
twenty miles. If you will kindly tell me which road I must take----"

"There she is," the man stated flatly, and pointed across the railroad
track to where a sandy road drew a yellowish line through the sage,
evidently making for the hills showing hazily violet in the distance.
Those hills formed the only break in the monotonous gray landscape, and
Lorraine was glad that her journey would take her close to them.

"Thank you so much," she said coldly and returned to the station. In
the small lavatory of the depot waiting room she exchanged her slippers
for a pair of moderately low-heeled shoes which she had at the last
minute of packing tucked into her suitcase, put a few extra articles
int