will be a pauper within a
year."

"Yet they charitably help him to spend his money. And I have noticed
that even worldly mammas find him eligible." The comment was not
without its caustic side.

"That was months ago, my dear," protested Barbara, calmly. "When he
spoke to me--he told me it would be impossible for him to marry within
a year. And don't you see that a year may make him an abject beggar?"

"Naturally anything is preferable to a beggar," came in Peggy's clear,
soft voice.

Barbara hesitated only a moment.

"Well, you must admit, Miss Gray, that it shows a shameful lack of
character. How could any girl be happy with a man like that? And, after
all, one must look out for one's own fate."

"Undoubtedly," replied Peggy, but many thoughts were dashing through
her brain.

"Shall we turn back to the cottage?" she said, after an awkward silence.

"You certainly don't approve of Mr. Brewster's conduct?" Barbara did
not like to be placed in the wrong, and felt that she must endeavor to
justify herself. "He is the most reckless of spend-thrifts, we know,
and he probably indulges in even less respectable excitement."

Peggy was not tall, but she carried her head at this moment as though
she were in the habit of looking down on the world.

"Aren't you going a little too far, Miss Drew?" she asked placidly.

"It is not only New York that laughs at his Quixotic transactions,"
Barbara persisted. "Mr. Hampton, our guest from Chicago, says the
stories are worse out there than they are in the east."

"It is a pity that Monty's illness should have made him so weak," said
Peggy quietly, as they turned in through the great iron gates, and
Barbara was not slow to see the point.

CHAPTER XVII

THE NEW TENDERFOOT

Brewster was comparatively well and strong when he returned to New York
in March. His illness had interfered extensively with his plan of
campaign and it was imperative that he redouble his efforts,
notwithstanding the manifest dismay of his friends. His first act was
to call upon Grant & Ripley, from whom he hoped to learn what
Swearengen Jones thought of his methods. The lawyers had heard no
complaint from Montana, and advised him to continue as he had begun,
assuring him, as far as they could, that Jones would not prove
unreasonable.

An exchange of telegrams just before his operation had renewed Monty's
dread of his eccentric mentor.

NEW YORK, Jan. 6, 19--

SWEARENGEN JONES,

Butte,