We may be able to find better
accommodations towards the Columbia, when the moon rises," he said, "but I
can't be as sure of another--chaperon." Then, looking into her face, he
added in his minor key: "I am sorry, but you will make the best of things,
I know. And the night will pass. Come."

She slipped down beside him and stood holding her skirts out of the
powdery soil, while her wide eyes searched that interior through the open
door. Tisdale lifted the baggage from the buggy to the porch, then the
woman returned with the lantern and, followed by the dogs, went to show
him where he might stable the horses. After a moment Miss Armitage
ventured up the low steps to the threshold. It was a portable cabin such
as she had noticed from the train window at intervals where construction
was incomplete along the new railroad. It was battered and weak, showing
old earmarks of transportation, but it was furnished with a rusty
cook-stove, some bench chairs, and two beds, which stood in the farther
corners and nearly filled that half of the room. A few heavy dishes, the
part of a loaf of bread, and several slices of indifferently fried bacon
were on the table, between the lamp and a bucket containing a little
water. Presently, still holding her skirts, she crossed the grimy floor
and stood inspecting with a mingled fascination and dread those ancient
beds. Both were destitute of linen, but one was supplied with a tumbled
heap of coarse, brown blankets. In the other, beneath a frayed comforter,
two small boys were sleeping. Their sun-baked faces were overhung with
thatches of streaked blond hair, and one restless arm, throwing off the
sodden cover, partly exposed the child's day attire, an unclean denim
blouse tucked into overalls. She turned in sudden panic and hurried back
to the porch.

In a little while she noticed her suitcase, opened it, and found her
cologne; with this she drenched a fresh handkerchief and began to bathe
her face and hands. Then she drew one of the bench chairs through the
doorway and, seating herself with her back to the room, kept on dabbing
her lips and her cheeks with the cool, delicately pungent perfume, and so
gathered up the remnants of her scattered fortitude. Finally, when the
lantern glimmered again, and she was able to distinguish the two returning
figures, she had laid aside her hat and coat, and she was ready to smile,
if not radiantly at least encouragingly, at Tisdale as he came up the
steps.