d sooner she was made reasonably comfortable."

Hawtrey looked up with a flush in his face.

"Harry," he said, "this is extravagantly generous."

"Wait," returned Wyllard; "there's a little more to be said. I can't be
back before the frost, and I may be away eighteen months. While I am
away you will have a clear field--and you must make the most of it. If
you are not married when I come back I shall ask Miss Ismay again.
Now"--and he glanced at his comrade steadily--"does this stand in the
way of you're going on with the arrangement we have arrived at?"

There was a rather tense silence for a moment or two, and then Hawtrey
said:

"No; after all there is no reason why it should do so. It has no
practical bearing upon the other question."

Wyllard rose. "Well," he suggested, "if you will call Allen Hastings in
we'll get this thing fixed up."

The document was duly signed, and a few minutes later Wyllard drove
away.

Mrs. Hastings contrived to have a few words with Hawtrey before he left
the house.

"I've no doubt that Harry took you into his confidence on a certain
point," she remarked.

"Yes," admitted Hawtrey, "he did. I was a little astonished, besides
feeling rather sorry for him. There is, however, reason to believe that
he'll soon get over it."

"You feel sure of that?" Mrs. Hastings smiled.

"Isn't it evident? If he had cared much about her he certainly wouldn't
have gone away."

"You mean you wouldn't?"

"No," declared Hawtrey, "there's no doubt of that."

Mrs. Hastings smiled again. "Well," she commented, "I would like to
think you were right about Harry; it would be a relief to me."

Hawtrey presently drove away, and soon after he left the homestead
Agatha approached Mrs. Hastings.

"There's something I must ask you," she said. "Has Gregory consented to
take charge of Wyllard's farm?"

"He has," answered Mrs. Hastings in her dryest tone.

There was a flash in Agatha's eyes.

"Oh," she said, "it's almost unendurable."

Agatha saw Wyllard only once again, and that was when he called early
one morning. He got down from the wagon where Dampier sat, and shook
hands with her and Allen and Mrs. Hastings. Few words were spoken, and
she could not remember what she said, but when he swung himself up again
and the wagon jolted away into the white prairie she went back to the
house with a feeling of loss and depression.

CHAPTER XV

THE BEACH

For a fortnight after they reached Vanc