me down to it the last year--a mere bagatelle to what I had
all the time I was at college and Tech.," replied Ashton, his eyes
sparkling at the recollection. "He wished me to get in thick with the
New Yorkers, the sons of the Wall Street leaders. He gave me leave to
draw on him without limit. I did what he wished me to do,--I got in
with the most exclusive set. Ah-h!--the way I made the dollars fly!
Before I graduated I was the acknowledged leader. What's more, I led
my class, too--when I chose."

"When you chose!" she echoed. "And now what are you going to do?"

The question punctured his reminiscent elation. He sagged down in his
saddle. "I don't know," he answered despondently. "_Mon Dieu!_ To come
down to this--a common laborer for wages--after _that_! When I think
of it--when I think of it!"

"You are not to think of it again!" she commanded with kindly
severity. "What you are to remember all the time is that you are now a
man and honestly earning your own living, and no longer a--a leech
battening on the sustenance produced by others."

He winced. "Was that my fault?"

"No, it was your father's. I marvel that he did not utterly ruin
you."

"He has! In his last will he cuts me off with only a dollar."

"So that was it?--And you think that ruined you? I say it saved you!"
she went on with the same kindly severity. "You were a parasite. Now
the chance is yours to prove that you have the makings of a man. You
have started to prove it. You shall not stop proving it. You are not
going to be a quitter."

"No!" he declared, straightening under her bright gaze. "I will not
quit. I will try my best to make good as long as the chance is given
me."

"Now you're talking!" she commended him breezily.

"How could I do otherwise when you asked me?" he replied with a grave
sincerity far more complimentary than mere gallantry.

She colored with pleasure and began to tell him of the cattle and
their ways.

When they reached the corral she complimented him in turn by allowing
him to offsaddle her horse. They walked on down to the house and
seated themselves in the porch. As he opened the bag of mail for her
she noticed that her hand was empty and turned to look back towards
the corral.

"Your receipt from the postmaster," she remarked; "I must have dropped
it."

He sprang up. "If you wish to keep it, I shall go back and find it for
you."

"No, oh, no; unless you want it yourself," she replied.

"Not I. The mat