o Paul
Blackton than she did to him, apparently taking the keenest interest in his
friend's enthusiastic descriptions of the mighty work along the line of
steel. And as pretty Peggy Blackton never seemed quite so happy as when
listening to her husband, he was forced to content himself by looking at
Joanne most of the time, without once receiving her smile.

The sun was just falling behind the western mountains when Peggy and
Joanne, hurried most incontinently by Blackton, who had looked at his
watch, left the table to prepare themselves for the big event of the
evening.

"I want to get you there before dusk," he explained. "So please hurry!"

They were back in five minutes. Joanne had slipped on a long gray coat, and
with a veil that trailed a yard down her back she had covered her head.
Not a curl or a tress of her hair had she left out of its filmy prison, and
there was a mischievous gleam of triumph in her eyes when she looked at
Aldous.

A moment later, when they went ahead of Blackton and his wife to where the
buckboard was waiting for them, he said:

"You put on that veil to punish me, Ladygray?"

"It is a pretty veil," said she.

"But your hair is prettier," said he.

"And you embarrassed me very much by staring as you did, John Aldous!"

"Forgive me. It is--I mean you are--so beautiful."

"And you are sometimes--most displeasing," said she. "Your ingenuousness,
John Aldous, is shocking!"

"Forgive me," he said again.

"And you have known me but two days," she added.

"Two days--is a long time," he argued. "One can be born, and live, and die
in two days. Besides, our trails have crossed for years."

"But--it displeases me."

"What I have said?"

"Yes."

"And the way I have looked at you?"

"Yes."

Her voice was low and quiet now, her eyes were serious, and she was not
smiling.

"I know--I know," he groaned, and there was a deep thrill in his voice.
"It's been only two days after all, Ladygray. It seems like--like a
lifetime. I don't want you to think badly of me. God knows I don't!"

"No, no. I don't," she said quickly and gently. "You are the finest
gentleman I ever knew, John Aldous. Only--it embarrasses me."

"I will cut out my tongue and put out my eyes----"

"Nothing so terrible," she laughed softly. "Will you help me into the
wagon? They are coming."

She gave him her hand, warm and soft; and Blackton forced him into the seat
between her and Peggy, and Joanne's hand rested in