g both for himself and her; he must save
her always from herself."

The man lifted his head and looked away toward Granite Mountain. As once
before this woman had aroused him to assert his manhood's strength, she
called now to all that was finest and truest in the depth of his being.

"You are always right, Helen," he said, almost reverently.

"No, Larry," she answered quickly, "but you know that I am right in
this."

"I will free Kitty from her promise at once," he said, as though to end
the matter.

Helen answered quickly. "But that is exactly what you must not do."

The man was bewildered. "Why, I thought--what in the world do you mean?"

She laughed happily as she said, "Stupid Larry, don't you understand?
You must make Kitty send you about your business. You must save her
self-respect. Can't you see how ashamed and humiliated she would be if
she imagined for a moment that you did not love her? Think what she
would suffer if she knew that you had merely tried to buy her with your
wealth and the things you possess!"

She disregarded his protest.

"That's exactly what your proposal meant, Larry. A girl like Kitty, if
she knew the truth of what she had done, might even fancy herself
unworthy to accept her happiness now that it has come. You must make her
dismiss you, and all that you could give her. You must make her proud
and happy to give herself to the man she loves."

"But--what can I do?" he asked in desperation.

"I don't know, Larry. But you must manage somehow--for Kitty's sake you
_must_."

"If only the Dean had not interrupted the proceedings this morning, how
it would have simplified everything!" he mused, and she saw that as
always he was laughing at himself.

"Don't, Larry; please don't," she cried earnestly.

He looked at her curiously. "Would you have me lie to her,
Helen--deliberately lie?"

She answered quietly. "I don't think that I would raise that question,
if I were you, Larry--considering all the circumstances."

On his way back to the Cross-Triangle, Patches walked as a man who,
having determined upon a difficult and distasteful task, is of a mind to
undertake it without delay.

After supper that evening he managed to speak to Kitty when no one was
near.

"I must see you alone for a few minutes to-night," he whispered
hurriedly. "As soon as possible. I will be under the trees near the bank
of the wash. Come to me as soon as it is dark, and you can slip away."

The young w