light badinage, but when there was a crisis to be
grappled with he somehow failed. His graces were on the surface. There
was no depth in him.

"Aggy," he added humbly, when he should have been dominant and forceful,
"it is only a question of a little time. You will get used to me."

"Then," pleaded the girl, who clutched at the chance of respite, "give
me six months from to-day. It isn't very much to ask, Gregory."

Gregory wrinkled his brows. "It's a great deal," he answered slowly. "I
feel that we shall drift further and further apart if once I let you
go."

"Then you feel that we have drifted a little already?"

"I don't know what has come over you, Aggy, but there has been a change.
I'm what I was, and I want to keep you."

Agatha rose and turned towards him a white face. "If you are wise you
will not urge me now," she said.

Hawtrey met her gaze for a moment, and then made a sign of acquiescence
as he turned his eyes away. He recognized that this was a new Agatha,
one whose will was stronger than his. Yet he was astonished that he had
yielded so readily.

"Well," he agreed, "if it must be, I can only give way to you, but I
must be free to come over here whenever I wish." Suddenly a thought
struck him. "But you may hare to go away," he added, with sudden
concern. "If I am to wait six months, what are you to do in the
meanwhile?"

Agatha smiled wearily. Now that the respite had been granted her, the
question he had raised was not one that caused her any great concern.

"Oh," she answered, "we can think of that later. I have borne enough
to-day. This has been a little hard upon me, Gregory."

"I don't think it has been particularly easy for either of us," returned
Hawtrey, with grimness. "Anyway, it seems that I'm only distressing
you." There was a baffled, puzzled look in his face. "Naturally, this is
so unexpected that I don't know what to say. I'll come back when I feel
I've grasped the situation."

Taking one of her hands, he stooped and kissed her cheek.

"My dear," he said, "I only want to make it as easy as I can. You'll try
to think of me favorably."

He went out and left her sitting beside the open window. A warm breeze
swept into the room; outside a blaze of sunshine rested on the prairie.
The ground about the house was torn up with wheel ruts, for the wooden
building rose abruptly without fence or garden from the waste of
whitened grass. Close to the house stood a birch-log barn or stables,