e is the only real man in this whole spindling,
self-seeking, artificial crowd! If you listened, you know how proud
and independent he is!"

"I heard, but that was only his cleverness; he knew how eager you were
and he simply led you on to almost propose to him yourself! That was
good stuff about not knowing he cared for you down in Mexico until you
were leaving. What would you say if I were to tell you that he made a
deliberate play for you from the moment he reached that town? Oh, he's
serious enough! He'll marry you if he can; that's what he meant to do
from the first."

"I think you must be mad!" Willa stared at her cousin in sheer wonder.
"Why should he have wanted to marry me? There were lots of other girls
in town----"

"Because he knew who you really were all the time! He knew before
Mason North ever found you, and he knew, too, what a fortune you were
coming into. You needn't look at me like that, I know what I am
talking about!"

"I don't think you do," Willa remarked simply. "You must have taken
leave of your senses or else Starr Wiley has been making you believe
the silliest sort of lies. How could Kearn Thode have known who I was?
No one did but--but the man who had made me his own daughter, and he
would not tell me because he did not want to hurt me by letting me know
what mean, contemptible snobs my people were and how they had served my
own father for marrying my brave mother! Kearn Thode knew nothing!"

"What if I were to show you proof? Here is a letter in his own hand,
telling all about you and what he meant to do." Angie pulled a
crumpled wad of paper from her bodice and held it out, her whole body
quivering in triumph. "Read it and then you'll know whether he cares
for you or not! Read it, I say!"

"And I say to you that if you don't leave this room at once I will ring
and have you put out! Don't you imagine that I can see through a
scurvy trick of Starr Wiley's to get back at the man who beat him twice
to a mere pulp? I do not want to see the letter, I will not read it.
It is all a lie!"

"Then listen!" Angie smoothed the sheet of paper and fairly danced in
her excitement. "You shall listen! You shall know what that man is
scheming to marry you for! There is only a part of it here, but it
ought to be enough to open your eyes, blinded with conceit as you are!"

"I will not----!" Willa began indignantly, but Angie's voice silenced
her.

"----'Except for him, of cours