.

"Then what fault have you to find?"

Harley was embarrassed, and hesitated, seeking for the right words--what
did it matter to him if she failed to show the reserve that he thought
part of a gentlewoman's nature.

"You infer more than I meant," he said, at last. "I merely felt surprise
that they should have obtained a photograph so quickly."

The slightly deepened flush in her cheeks remained and she surveyed him
with the same cool air of defiance.

"They would have had a picture, anyhow, something made up; was it not
better, then, to furnish them a real one than to have a burlesque
published?"

"It's hardly usual," said Harley, more embarrassed than ever. "But
really, Miss Morgan, I have no right to speak of it in any connection."

"No, but you were intending to do so. It was in your eye when I looked
up and saw you coming towards me."

Her voice had grown chilly, and her gaze was fixed on Harley. The
Western girl certainly had dignity and reserve when she wished them, but
he did not believe that she chose the right moments to display these
admirable qualities.

"I did not know that I had such a speaking countenance," said Harley.
"And even if so, you must not forget that you might read it wrong."

"I do not think so," she said, still chilly, and, glancing up at the
clock, she added: "It is almost twelve, and I promised Aunt Anna to be
with her a half-hour ago."

At the door she paused, turned back, and a flashing smile illuminated
her face for a moment.

"Oh, Mr. Harley," she said, "don't you wish some newspaper would print
your picture?"

Then she was gone, leaving him flushed and irritated. He was angry, both
at her and himself; at himself because he had expected to rebuke her, to
show her indirectly and in a delicate way where she was wrong, and he
had never even got as far as the attack. It was he who had been put upon
the defence, when he had not expected to be in such a state, and his
self-satisfaction suffered. But he told himself that she was a crude
Western girl, and that it was nothing to him if she forced herself into
the public gaze in a bold and theatrical manner.

A little later all left for Milwaukee, where Mr. Grayson was to make
another great speech in the evening, and Harley again refrained from
joining the group that soon gathered around Miss Morgan, and Mrs.
Grayson, also, who, being in a very happy mood, made a loan of her
presence as a chaperon, she said, although, being a yo