is ill. I have travelled night and day since the telegram reached
me, but La Junta is so far away I am afraid I shall be too late.'

"I wish I could give you an idea of his manner: it was more like that of
a person who had just learned the language and was afraid of making
mistakes, so hesitated before each word, giving every syllable its full
value. He explained this simply enough afterward--that Kitty had broken
him of swearing by making him think before he spoke."

"But you haven't told us who Kitty was," interrupted the blue parasol.
"Was she light or dark?"--"his wife?"--"he wouldn't have dared!"--"a
Texan wife?" and Mrs. Brogden looked very grave at the possibilities the
flying questions aroused.

"No, she wasn't his wife; only the Yankee schoolmistress of La Junta. I
never saw her. She must have been an angel, though, from his
description; so I will leave the details for your acquaintance
hereafter, Miss Brogden;" which outrageous flattery was received with
contemptuous silence.

"She lived at Junta, and would canter over on Saturdays to Trocalara,
the Texan's ranch, to teach his herdsmen's families. His partner,
Parker, and he had a large cattle-ranch not far from the Mexican
frontier, and Kitty could not have lived on a bed of roses, I fancy.
Raids, stampedes and other border pleasantries were constantly
occurring. I remember we thought him too gentle at first to have really
hailed from the Plains; but one night, when Hamilton remonstrated with a
man who, I believe, had allowed himself to get in that state described
by the sailors as 'three sheets in the wind, and the fourth fluttering,'
and was met with rather an uncivil reply, the Texan shut the offender up
like a jack-knife with his heavy grip and the intimation that 'he
proposed to settle the Bible-man's scores.'

"He grew quite intimate with Hamilton and me, and proved a delightful
companion. He would quote readily from many of the later poets, and knew
whole pages of Milton and Shakespeare by heart. Kitty had taught him
these, he said, after she married Parker and came to live with him.

"'She made us read history-books first,' he said--'many, many
volumes--but we soon got to like them better than anything else. The
poetry _she_ read to us; and so we never went to the shows in Junta
after she came. Kitty has a good husband, as fine a fellow as ever
lassoed a steer, but she is too pure for Junta. Parker loves her, and I
love her too, but both of us