n River.

"Mother could never live in one place any length of time," said Nell.
"And since we've been in the Southwest she has never ceased trying to
find some trace of her father. He was last heard of in Nogales
fourteen years ago. She thinks grandfather was lost in the Sonora
Desert.... And every place we go is worse. Oh, I love the desert. But
I'd like to go back to Lawrence--or to see Chicago or New York--some of
the places Mr. Gale speaks of.... I remember the college at Lawrence,
though I was only twelve. I saw races--and once real football. Since
then I've read magazines and papers about big football games, and I was
always fascinated .... Mr. Gale, of course, you've seen games?

"Yes, a few," replied Dick; and he laughed a little. It was on his
lips then to tell her about some of the famous games in which he had
participated. But he refrained from exploiting himself. There was
little, however, of the color and sound and cheer, of the violent
action and rush and battle incidental to a big college football game
that he did not succeed in making Mercedes and Nell feel just as if
they had been there. They hung breathless and wide-eyed upon his words.

Some one else was present at the latter part of Dick's narrative. The
moment he became aware of Mrs. Belding's presence he remembered
fancying he had heard her call, and now he was certain she had done so.
Mercedes and Nell, however, had been and still were oblivious to
everything except Dick's recital. He saw Mrs. Belding cast a strange,
intent glance upon Nell, then turn and go silently through the patio.
Dick concluded his talk, but the brilliant beginning was not sustained.

Dick was haunted by the strange expression he had caught on Mrs.
Belding's face, especially the look in her eyes. It had been one of
repressed pain liberated in a flash of certainty. The mother had seen
just as quickly as Mercedes how far he had gone on the road of love.
Perhaps she had seen more--even more than he dared hope. The incident
roused Gale. He could not understand Mrs. Belding, nor why that look
of hers, that seeming baffled, hopeless look of a woman who saw the
inevitable forces of life and could not thwart them, should cause him
perplexity and distress. He wanted to go to her and tell her how he
felt about Nell, but fear of absolute destruction of his hopes held him
back. He would wait. Nevertheless, an instinct that was perhaps akin
to self-preservation prompted