y to each other about their respective
farms. Nora gathered from what she could hear that Sharp had played the
part of a good neighbor, during her husband's enforced absence, in
having a general oversight of his house.

"You'll find the fence's down in quite a few places. I allowed to fix it
myself when I had the spare time, but when I heard that you was comin'
back so soon, I just naturally let her go."

"Sure, that was right. It'll give me something to do right at home. I
don't want to leave Mrs. Taylor too much alone until she gets a little
used to it. She's always been used to a lot of company," Nora heard him
say.

She smiled to herself in the darkness and felt a little warm feeling of
gratitude. She was right in her estimate. This man would be tractable
enough, after all. His attitude toward women, which, had formerly so
enraged her, was only on the surface. An affectation assumed to annoy
her when they were always quarreling. How foolish she had been not to
read him more accurately. For the first time, she felt a little return
of self-confidence. She would bring this hazardous experiment to a
successful conclusion, after all. It was really failure that she had
most feared.

But her heart sank within her once more when at last they drew up in
front of a long, low cabin built of logs. Mr. Sharp had not overstated
the dilapidated state of the fence. It sagged in half a dozen places and
one hinge of the gate was broken. Altogether it was as dreary a picture
as one could well imagine. The little cabin had the utterly forlorn look
of a house that has long been unoccupied.

"Woa there! Stand still, can't you?" said Sharp, tugging at the reins.

"A tidy pull, that last bit," said Frank. "Trail's very bad."

"Stand still, you brute! Wait a minute, Mrs. Taylor."

"I guess she wants to get home."

Taylor vaulted lightly from his seat and, without waiting to help Nora,
ran up the path to the house. As she stood up, trying to disentangle
herself from the heavy lap-robe, she could hear a key turn noisily in a
lock. With a jerk, he threw the door wide open.

"Wait a bit and I'll light the lamp, if I can find where the hell it's
got to," he called. "This shack's about two foot by three, and I'm
blamed if I can ever find a darned thing!"

Nora smiled to herself in the darkness.

She got down unassisted this time. Under the bright and starry sky she
could see a long stretch of prairie, fading away, without a break in