. Seldon had offered her with his sister was a very lovely one,
but to it there came each week letters about the mines and the people
there. Mr. Seldon had already gone out, and would be gone all summer. As
he was an enthusiast over the beauties and the returns of the country, his
letters were full of material that she heard discussed each day.
Therefore, the only safety for herself lay in flight; and if she did not
go across the ocean to the East, she would surely grow weaker and more
homesick until she would have to turn coward entirely and cross the
mountains to her West.

Realizing it all, she sat in her dainty array of evening dress and watched
with thoughts far away the mimic scene of love triumphant on the stage
before her. When, on the painted canvas, a far-off snow-crowned mountain
rose to their view, her heart seemed to creep to her throat and choke her,
and when the orchestra breathed softly of the winds, music, and the
twittering of birds, the tears rose to her eyes and a great longing in her
heart for all the wild beauty of her Kootenai land.

Then, just as the curtain went down on the second act, some one entered
their box.

"You, Harvey?" said Max, with genuine pleasure. "Good of you to look me
up. Let me introduce you to my aunt and Miss Haydon. You and Miss Rivers
are old acquaintances."

"Yes; and that fact alone has brought me here just now," he managed to say
to Lyster. "To confess the truth, I have been to see Miss Rivers at her
home this evening, having got her address from Roden, and then had the
assurance to follow her here. You may be sure I would not have spoiled
your evening for any trivial thing, but I come because of a woman who is
dying."

"A woman who is dying?" repeated 'Tana, in wonder. "And why do you come to
me?"

"She wants to see you. I think--to tell you something."

"But who is it?" asked Lyster. "Some beggar?"

"She is a beggar now at least," agreed Mr. Harvey--"a poor woman dying.
She said only to tell Miss Rivers, and here is a line she sent."

He gave her a slip of paper, and on it was written:

"Come and take some word to Dan Overton for me. I am dying.

OVERTON'S WIFE."

She arose, and Margaret exclaimed at the whiteness of her face.

"Oh, my dear," sighed Miss Seldon, "you know how I warned you not to give
your charities individually among the beggars of a city. It is really a
mistake. They have no consid