ors or hid in her own room.

At first she locked the door of that room when she entered, thinking of
it defiantly as her fortress which must be defended. But when weeks grew
into months and the enemy never attacked the fortress her vigilance
relaxed. She forgot to lock the door.

Summer passed. Autumn and then winter came. Knight was a good deal away,
for he had bought an interest in a newly opened copper mine in the Organ
Mountains, and was interested in the development which might mean
fortune. At night, however, he came back in the second-hand motor-car
which he had got at a bargain price in El Paso, and drove himself.

Annesley never failed to hear him return, though she gave no sign. And
sometimes she would peep through the slats of her green shutters on one
side of the patio at the windows of his bedroom and "office," which were
opposite. It was seldom that his light did not burn late, and Annesley
went to bed thinking hard thoughts, asking herself what schemes of new
adventure he might be plotting for the day when he should tire of the
ranch.

Often she wondered that her life was not more hateful than it was; for
somehow it was not hateful. Texas, with its vast spaces and blowing gusts
of ozone, had begun to mean more for her than her cold reserve let Knight
guess, more than she herself could understand.

* * * * *

On Christmas morning, when she opened her bedroom door, she almost
stumbled over a covered Mexican basket of woven coloured straws.
Something inside it moved and sighed.

She stooped, lifted the cover, and saw, curled up on a bit of red
blanketing, a miniature Chihuahua dog. It had a body as slight and
shivering as a tendril of grapevine; a tiny pointed face, with a high
forehead and immense, almost human eyes.

At sight of her a thread of tail wagged, and Annesley felt a warm impulse
of affection toward the little creature. Of course it was a present from
Knight, though there was no word to tell her so; and if the dog had not
looked at her with an offer of all its love and self she would perhaps
have refused to accept it rather than encourage the giving of gifts.

But after that look she could not let the animal go. Its possession made
life warmer; and it was good to see it lying in front of her open fire of
mesquite roots.

She had no Christmas gift for Knight.

He had made, soon after their coming to the ranch, a cactus fence round
the house enclosure; an