"Is that all that you have ever read?" he asked compassionately.

"O, no! We got papers sometimes. Father would come home with a whole paper

wrapped around some bundle. Once there was a beautiful story about a girl;

but the paper was torn in the middle, and I never knew how it came out."

There was great wistfulness in her voice. It seemed to be one of the

regrets of her girlhood that she did not know how that other girl in the

story fared. All at once she turned to him.

"Now tell me about your life," she said. "I'm sure you have a great deal

to tell."

His face darkened in a way that made her sorry.

"O, well," said he as if it mattered very little about his life, "I had a

nice home--have yet, for the matter of that. Father died when I was

little, and mother let me do just about as I pleased. I went to school

because the other fellows did, and because that was the thing to do. After

I grew up I liked it. That is, I liked some studies; so I went to a

university."

"What is that?"

"O, just a higher school where you learn grown-up things. Then I

travelled. When I came home, I went into society a good deal. But"--and

his face darkened again--"I got tired of it all, and thought I would come

out here for a while and hunt, and I got lost, and I found you!" He smiled

into her face. "Now you know the rest."

Something passed between them in that smile and glance, a flash of the

recognition of souls, and a gladness in each other's company, that made

the heart warm. They said no more for some time, but rode quietly side by

side.

They had come to the end of the valley, and were crossing the bench. The

distant ranch could quite distinctly be seen. The silver moon had come up,

for they had not been hurrying, and a great beauty pervaded everything.

They almost shrank from approaching the buildings and people. They had

enjoyed the ride and the companionship. Every step brought them nearer to

what they had known all the time was an indistinct future from which they

had been joyously shut away for a little time till they might know each

other.




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