go north to
his duty--without orders from Flagg and without considering further his
entanglement with a girl--was a fact that steadily lessened his
self-esteem. He had been able to go straightforwardly in all matters
till then; this new inability to handle complex affairs and to untangle
the situation made him distrust himself and wonder whether he was much
of a man, anyway!

Then came night--and he went to his room to brood.

At supper the girl of his thoughts had been conspicuously rude in the
manner with which she banged down dishes in front of him.

Lida had been doing some pondering of her own. She would not admit that
she had been piqued by his attentions to Elsham and by his partial
promise to that complacent young lady. But she was finding him to be
very much of a child, she told herself. He needed to be protected from
himself at that juncture. And he needed to be convinced that he was
wasting his time just then by staying away from duty and playing the
lover. Lida's first thought was that if he found no profit in lovemaking
he would go back to his work in spite of what he had told her. She could
not bring herself to believe that a man like Latisan would succumb to
Elsham's wiles.

In that mood, both as protectress and as stanch believer in his
uprightness, she found that her interest in him was becoming more vivid
than she had realized. Her warming heart sent a flush into her cheeks
when she remembered the passionate embrace. She noted that flush when
she looked into her mirror. She was making herself ready for slumber.

"Don't be a fool!" she warned the reflection in the mirror.

Having clarified the situation to that extent in her thoughts before
going to sleep, she awoke and began the new day with better confidence.
The spirit of the Open Places certainly did make folks honest, she told
herself! She felt that the morning must have brought common sense to
Latisan, as it had to her.

From her window she saw him walking to and fro in front of the tavern.
The early dawn was flushing the east. His being abroad at that hour
suggested that he was going back to his work instead of playing the
idling lover. She decided to be frank with him; she dressed in haste,
hurried down and faced him, and told him how glad she was that he had
come into his right senses; she had determined that her best course was
to take his reformed mental state for granted.

"Yes, I'm sensible enough to quit being a boss bulldog for a