on she disappeared into the
house.

The meal proved unexpectedly good. There was about it an enticing
freshness, and a variety that was surprising when the distance from the
house to the nearest market was considered. Stranleigh could not
remember any repast he had enjoyed so much, although he suspected that
horseback exercise in the keen air had helped his appreciation of it.
When he mentioned his gratification at so satisfactory a menu, the girl
smiled.

"Plain living and lofty thought is our motto on the ranch," she said.

"This is anything but plain living," he replied, "and I consider myself
no mean judge in such matters. How far away is your market town?"

"Oh, a market is merely one of those effete contrivances of
civilisation. What you buy in a market has been handled and re-handled,
and artificially made to look what it is not. The basis of our provender
is the farm. All round us here is what economists call, in a double
sense of the term, raw material. Farm house fare is often what it should
not be because art belongs to the city while nature belongs to the farm.
To produce a good result, the two must be united. We were speaking just
now of Thun. If, leaving that town, you proceed along the left hand road
by the lake, you will arrive at a large institution which is devoted
entirely to the art of cookery. The more I progressed with my studies at
Lausanne, the more I realised that the basis of health is good food,
properly prepared. So I interrupted my medical studies for a time,
entered that establishment, and learned to cook."

"Miss Armstrong, you are the most efficient individual I ever met."

"You are very complimentary, Mr. Stranleigh, because, like the various
meals you have enjoyed in different parts of the world, you must have
met a great many people. To enhance myself further in your eyes, I may
add that I have brought another much-needed accomplishment to the farm.
I am an expert accountant, and can manage business affairs in a way that
would startle you, and regarding this statement of mine, I should like
to ask you, hoping you won't think I am impertinent, are you a rich
man?"

Stranleigh was indeed startled--she had succeeded in that--and he
hesitated before he answered--

"I am considered reasonably well off."

"I am very glad to hear it, for it has been the custom of my father, who
is not a good business man, to charge boarders two or three dollars a
week when they come with their guns