, and free, and strong. I should hate to think of
him--branded--labouring under the saddle like a common cow-horse."

"That's just what the Texan thought--so he turned him out onto the range
again. It was a great big thing to do--and it was done in a great big
way--by a man with a great big poetic soul." There was a long silence
during which the little clock ticked incessantly, Alice spoke again,
more to herself than to the girl: "What Tex needs is some strong
incentive, something worth while, something to work for, to direct his
marvellous energy toward--he needs someone to love, and who will love
him. What he needs is not a sister--it's a wife."

"Why didn't you marry him, then?" flashed the girl.

Alice smiled: "He never asked me," she answered, "and I couldn't have
married him, if he had. Because, really, I've always loved Win--for
years and years."

"Maybe he won't ask--anyone else, either. If he asks me, I won't marry
him. I won't marry anybody!" She concluded with a defiant toss of the
head.

"I certainly shouldn't either, if I felt that way. And if he should ask
you, you stick to it, or you will spoil my plans----"

"Your--plans?" questioned the girl.

"Yes, I've got the grandest scheme. I haven't told a soul. When we get
settled on the Y Bar I'm going to send for a friend of mine--she's a
perfectly beautiful girl, and she's just as adorable as she is
beautiful. And I'm going to make her come and pay us a long visit. I'm a
great believer in propinquity, and especially out here----"

Janet sniffed audibly: "She'd probably get lost the first thing----"

"That's it, exactly!" cried Alice enthusiastically. "That's just what
I'm counting on--and who would find her? Why Tex, of course! There you
have it--all the ingredients of a first-class romance. Beautiful maiden
lost on the range--forlorn, homesick, wretched, scared. Enter
hero--rescues maiden--if I could only work in a villain of some
kind--but maybe one will turn up. Anyway, even without a villain it's
almost sure to work--don't you think?"

Alice repressed a desire to smile as she noted the girl's flushed face,
"I--I think it's perfectly horrid! It's a--what do they call it? A
regular frame-up! Suppose he don't love the girl? Suppose he don't want
to marry her?"

Alice laughed: "Well, then you may rest assured he won't marry her! He
won't marry anyone he don't want to, and as the Irish say, 'by the same
token,' when he finds the girl he wants to ma