age. Now she had about arrived at the comfortable conclusion
that Steve Brown was simply one who saw what ought to be done and did
it.

His acts had a way of doing their own explaining, uninterpreted by him,
so that, as they sorted together in that prairieful of time, he became
a less difficult study; and by the time she had thus learned him she
found herself in a most comfortable case. He was really a very simple
sort of man to understand, after all. While he had been very alarming
at first she had come to see into his mental state, and she liked, or
at least had grown accustomed to, his faults.

His lack of talkativeness had made the process seem rather slow at
first, and she had felt that more talk would have helped; but now she
had begun to think differently. She had thought him wanting in tact,
but the fact of the matter was that he did not need it. He did better
without it. She reflected, however, that his qualities were of the
kind that would easily remain undiscovered by other women. One had to
know him. He had been quite a revelation to her, perfectly simple. It
was no longer he that seemed strange to her, but rather the adventure
itself,--especially when she reflected that it happened such a little
while ago. He seemed to date back farther than that; indeed, her
knowing of him did not seem to be a thing of any date at all. And yet
he owed his existence, so far as she was concerned, to that mere chance
and her sudden dash out into the distance. It is strange how things
happen.

What had been his history up to the time that had happened? This
question had passed across her mind and brought with it a shade of
doubt; but it soon lost itself in his real presence; he was simply
Steve Brown.

She felt that she knew him. And now, on this evening, when he had
entertained her with his explanation of the ways of sheep, there came a
pause. After a while he rose to tend the fire, which had burnt low.
He scraped the embers together and put on the wood, and then, having
sat down again, he told her, rather deliberately, that on that day he
had caught her horse.

He had not broached this subject during all this time. And at supper,
before they became so interested in talking, there had been plenty of
opportunity. He went on to explain that he had not caught the horse
exactly; he had rather got it without the trouble of catching. The
animal had been so willing to form his acquaintance that it had only
b