g, George started homeward with his
cattle, and as they rode slowly through the barley-grass that fringed
the trail, Edgar looked at him with a smile.

"You spent some time in Miss Grant's company," he remarked. "How did
she strike you?"

"I like her. She's interesting--I think that's the right word for it.
Seems to understand things; talks to you like a man."

"Just so," Edgar rejoined, with a laugh. "She's a lady I've a high
opinion of; in fact, I'm a little afraid of her. Though I'm nearly as
old as she is, she makes me feel callow. It's a sensation that's new
to me."

"And you're a man of experience, aren't you?"

"I suppose I was rather a favorite at home," Edgar owned with humorous
modesty. "For all that, I don't feel myself quite up to Miss Grant's
standard."

"I didn't notice any assumption of superiority on her part."

"Oh, no," said Edgar. "She doesn't require to assume it; the
superiority's obvious; that's the trouble. One hesitates about
offering her the small change of compliments that generally went well
at home. If you try to say something smart, she looks at you as if she
were amused, not at what you said, but at you. There's an embarrassing
difference between the things."

"The remedy's simple. Don't try to be smart."

"You would find that easy," Edgar retorted. "Now, in my opinion, Miss
Grant is intellectual, which is more than anybody ever accused you of
being, but I suspect you would make more progress with her than I could
do. Extremes have a way of meeting, and perhaps it isn't really
curious that your direct and simple views should now and then recommend
you to a more complex person."

"I notice a couple of beasts straying yonder," George said dryly.

Edgar rode off to drive the animals up to the herd. George, he
thought, was painfully practical; only such a man could break off the
discussion of a girl like Miss Grant to interest himself in the
movements of a wandering steer. For all that, the beasts must be
turned, and they gave Edgar a hard gallop through willow scrub and tall
grass before he could head them off and afterward overtake the drove.

CHAPTER IX

GEORGE TURNS REFORMER

George was working in the summer fallow a few days after his return
from Grant's homestead, when a man rode across the plowing and pulled
up his horse beside him. He was on the whole a handsome fellow, well
mounted and smartly dressed, but there was a hint of hardness in his
exp