scorn. What could have happened to bring all this
about?

Rachel Melrose had made the fatal mistake of thinking that no girl
reared west of the Alleghenies could be very refined or at ease or
appear well dressed in the company of Eastern people. She was not
prepared for the quiet courtesy and self-possession with which the
Kansas girl greeted her; nor had she expected, as she told me
afterward, to find in a town like Springvale such good taste and
exquisite neatness in dress. True, she had many little accessories of an
up-to-date fashion that had not gotten across the Mississippi River to
our girls as yet, but Marjie had the grace of always choosing the right
thing to wear. I was very proud of my loved one at that moment. There
was a show of cordiality between the two; then Rachel turned to me.

"I'm going with you this afternoon. Excuse me, Miss Whately, Mr. Baronet
promised me up at Topeka to take me out to see a wonderful cottonwood
tree that he said just dwarfed the little locust there, that we went out
one glorious moonlight night to see. It was a lovely stroll though,
wasn't it, Philip?"

This time it was my father's eyes that were fixed upon me in surprise
and stern inquiry.

"He will believe I am a flirt after all. It isn't possible to make any
man understand how that miserable girl can control things, unless he is
on the ground all the time." So ran my thoughts.

"Father, must that trip be made to-day? Because I'd rather get up a
party and go out when Miss Melrose goes."

But my father was in no mood to help me then. He had asked me to go
alone. Evidently he thought I had forgotten business and constancy of
purpose in the presence of this pretty girl.

"It must be done to-day. Miss Melrose will wait, I'm sure. It is a
serious business matter--"

"Oh, but I won't, Mr. Baronet. Your son promised me to do everything for
me if I would only come to Springvale; that was away last Spring, and my
stay will be short at best. I must go back to-morrow afternoon. Don't
rob us of a minute."

She spoke with such a pretty grace, and yet her words were so trifling
that my father must have felt as I did. He could have helped me then had
he thought that I deserved help, for he was a tactful man. But he merely
assented and sent us away. When we were gone Marjie turned to him
bravely.

"Judge Baronet, I think I will go home. I came in from Red Range this
noon with the Meads. It was very warm, coming east, and I am not