, hair like this, a profile like this, a
figure like this." I gazed in wonder, then in certainty.

No there was no escaping the conclusion. This was not another girl, but
the same girl seen again. A moment's reflection showed how possible and
indeed natural this might be. My chance companion in the river accident
had simply gone on up the river a little farther and then started west
precisely as Mandy McGovern had explained.

Belknap caught the slight restraint as the girl and I both raised our
eyes. "Oh, I say, why--what in the world--Mr. Cowles, didn't you--that
is, haven't you--"

"No," said I, "I haven't and didn't, I think. But I think also--"

The girl's face was a trifle flushed, but her eyes were merry. "Yes,"
said she, "I think Mr. Cowles and I have met once before." She slightly
emphasized the word "once," as I noticed.

"But still I may remind you all, gentlemen," said I, "that I have not
yet heard this lady's name, and am only guessing, of course, that it is
Miss Meriwether, whom you are taking out to Laramie."

"Why, of course," said Belknap, and "of course," echoed everybody else.
My fair _vis-a-vis_ looked me now full in the face and smiled, so that a
dimple in her right cheek was plainly visible.

"Yes," said she, "I'm going on out to join my father on the front. This
is my second time across, though. Is it your first, Mr. Cowles?"

"My first; and I am very lucky. You know, I also am going out to meet
your father, Miss Meriwether."

"How singular!" She put down her tin cup of coffee on the blanket.

"My father was an associate of Colonel Meriwether in some business
matters back in Virginia--"

"Oh, I know--it's about the coal lands, that are going to make us all
rich some day. Yes, I know about that; though I think your father rarely
came over into Albemarle."

Under the circumstances I did not care to intrude my personal matters,
so I did not mention the cause or explain the nature of my mission in
the West. "I suppose that you rarely came into our county either, but
went down the Shenandoah when you journeyed to Washington?" I said
simply, "I myself have never met Colonel Meriwether."

All this sudden acquaintance and somewhat intimate relation between us
two seemed to afford no real pleasure either to Belknap or Orme. For my
part, with no clear reason in the world, it seemed to me that both
Belknap and Orme were very detestable persons. Had the framing of this
scene been left utterly to