been this lad's father."

"No, I never heard much they said. Did you know him?"

"The father, yes, but that was years ago. Come, Kid, all this is only
ancient history, and just as well forgotten. Now, you are a sensible
girl, when your temper don't get away with you, and I am simply going
to leave this matter to your better judgment. Will you go to Mrs.
Herndon's, and find out how you like it? You need n't stop there an
hour if she is n't good to you, but you ought not to want to remain
with me, and grow up like a rough boy."

"You--you really want me to go, don't you?"

"Yes, I want you to go. It's a chance for you, Kid, and there is n't a
bit of a show in the kind of a life I lead. I never have been in love
with it myself, and only took to it in the first place because the
devil happened to drive me that way. The Lord knows I don't want to
lead any one else through such a muck. So it is a try?"

The look of defiance faded slowly out of her face as she stood gravely
regarding him. The man was in deadly earnest, and she felt the quiet
insistence of his manner. He really desired it to be decided in this
way, and somehow his will had become her law, although such a suspicion
had never once entered her mind.

"You bet, if you put it that way," she consented, simply, "but I reckon
that Mrs. Herndon is likely to wish I hadn't."

Together, yet scarcely exchanging another word, the two retraced their
steps slowly down the steep trail leading toward the little town in the
valley, walking unconsciously the pathway of fate, the way of all the
world.

CHAPTER VII

"I'VE COME HERE TO LIVE"

Widely as these two companions differed in temperament and experience,
it would be impossible to decide which felt the greater uneasiness at
the prospect immediately before them. The girl openly rebellious, the
man extremely doubtful, with reluctant steps they approached that tall,
homely yellow house--outwardly the most pretentious in Glencaid--which
stood well up in the valley, where the main road diverged into numerous
winding trails leading toward the various mines among the foothills.

They were so completely opposite, these two, that more than one chance
passer-by glanced curiously toward them as they picked their way onward
through the red dust. Hampton, slender yet firmly knit, his movements
quick like those of a watchful tiger, his shoulders set square, his
body held erect as though trained to the profess