ows
bleached nearly white, his eyes were a clear steady blue, and his frame
was slender but wiry. He wore the regulation mackinaw blanket coat, a
peaked cap with an extraordinarily high crown, and buckskin moccasins
over long stockings.

The other was younger, not more than twenty-six perhaps, with the
clean-cut, regular features we have come to consider typically American.
Eyebrows that curved far down along the temples, and eyelashes of a
darkness in contrast to the prevailing note of his complexion combined
to lend him a rather brooding, soft, and melancholy air which a very
cursory second examination showed to be fictitious. His eyes, like the
woodsman's, were steady, but inquiring. His jaw was square and settled,
his mouth straight. One would be likely to sum him up as a man whose
actions would be little influenced by glamour or even by the sentiments.
And yet, equally, it was difficult to rid the mind of the impression
produced by his eyes. Unlike the other inmates of the car, he wore an
ordinary business suit, somewhat worn, but of good cut, and a style that
showed even over the soft flannel shirt. The trousers were, however,
bound inside the usual socks and rubbers.

The two seat mates had occupied their time each in his own fashion.
To the elder the journey was an evil to be endured with the patience
learned in watching deer runways, so he stared straight before him,
and spat with a certain periodicity into the centre of the aisle. The
younger stretched back lazily in an attitude of ease which spoke of the
habit of travelling. Sometimes he smoked a pipe. Thrice he read over a
letter. It was from his sister, and announced her arrival at the little
rural village in which he had made arrangements for her to stay. "It
is interesting,--now," she wrote, "though the resources do not look as
though they would wear well. I am learning under Mrs. Renwick to sweep
and dust and bake and stew and do a multitude of other things which I
always vaguely supposed came ready-made. I like it; but after I have
learned it all, I do not believe the practise will appeal to me much.
However, I can stand it well enough for a year or two or three, for I am
young; and then you will have made your everlasting fortune, of course."

Harry Thorpe experienced a glow of pride each time he read this part of
the letter. He liked the frankness of the lack of pretence; he admired
the penetration and self-analysis which had taught her the truth th