uated, it certainly is.
Of course, a good deal depends on how you set about this kind of
thing, and the correct way would have been to come in on a Pullman
instead of a cattle-car, and then engage a suite of rooms at the
biggest hotel. Financiers and company jobbers seem rather shy of a man
who gives Lemoine's boarding-house as his address, and some of them
are not quite civil when they hear what he has to say to them. In
fact, I'm afraid that I shall have to give them up in a day or two."

It was evident that he took his defeat quietly; but Ida thought that
she knew what that quietness cost.

"How are you going to get back?" she asked.

She felt that it was rather a cruel question, for this was not the man
to give up while he had a dollar in hand, and she was sure that he was
going back to search for the mine again. Still, in one respect, she
was a little vexed with him. His self-control was excellent, but there
was rather too much of it.

"That," he said, with a whimsical twinkle in his eyes, "is a point
that will require rather careful consideration."

Ida liked his smile, but the desire to startle him out of his
reticence in one way or another became suddenly irresistible, and she
changed the subject abruptly.

"I told you I was going to England," she said. "I wonder whether you
would be surprised to hear that I spent a month or two at Scarthwaite
Hall?"

Weston did not seem exactly astonished, but he was clearly
disconcerted and off his guard.

"I heard that you did," he said.

"Then you know that I met your father and sister and didn't keep my
promise, or, at least, that I didn't do what you wanted me to?"

"Yes," said Weston simply.

His quietness was too obvious, and she felt that it covered a good
deal.

"One of them wrote you?" she asked.

"Yes," admitted Weston, "my father indulged in a few reproaches. He
didn't seem to like the notion of my having served as your
camp-packer. After that, you were in London?"

He was at fault on two points, for, though compelled to answer her, he
should not have volunteered any information as to what was in the
letter, nor should he have attempted to change the subject, for this
made it clear to Ida that things had been said which he did not wish
her to suspect. There would, of course, be reproaches, but it seemed
probable that there would be a word or two of half-contemptuous advice
as well, and she felt reasonably sure what this would be. Weston of
Scarth