ill you stay with the ladies awhile, or go back down town with me?"

"I think I had better go with you, sir. I shall have to see Judge
Straight."

"Very well. But you must come back to supper, and we'll have a few
friends in to meet you. You must see some of the best people."

The doctor's buggy was waiting at the gate. As they were passing the
hotel on their drive down town, the clerk came out to the curbstone and
called to the doctor.

"There's a man here, doctor, who's been taken suddenly ill. Can you
come in a minute?"

"I suppose I'll have to. Will you wait for me here, George, or will
you drive down to the office? I can walk the rest of the way."

"I think I'll wait here, doctor," answered Tryon. "I'll step up to my
room a moment. I'll be back by the time you're ready."

It was while they were standing before the hotel, before alighting from
the buggy, that Frank Fowler, passing on his cart, saw Tryon and set
out as fast as he could to warn Mis' Molly and her daughter of his
presence in the town.

Tryon went up to his room, returned after a while, and resumed his seat
in the buggy, where he waited fifteen minutes longer before the doctor
was ready. When they drew up in front of the office, the doctor's man
Dave was standing in the doorway, looking up the street with an anxious
expression, as though struggling hard to keep something upon his mind.

"Anything wanted, Dave?" asked the doctor.

"Dat young 'oman's be'n heah ag'in, suh, an' wants ter see you bad.
She's in de drugstore dere now, suh. Bless Gawd!" he added to himself
fervently, "I 'membered dat. Dis yer recommemb'ance er mine is gwine
ter git me inter trouble ef I don' look out, an' dat's a fac', sho'."

The doctor sprang from the buggy with an agility remarkable in a man of
sixty. "Just keep your seat, George," he said to Tryon, "until I have
spoken to the young woman, and then we'll go across to Straight's. Or,
if you'll drive along a little farther, you can see the girl through
the window. She's worth the trouble, if you like a pretty face."

Tryon liked one pretty face; moreover, tinted beauty had never appealed
to him. More to show a proper regard for what interested the doctor
than from any curiosity of his own, he drove forward a few feet, until
the side of the buggy was opposite the drugstore window, and then
looked in.

Between the colored glass bottles in the window he could see a young
woman, a tall and slender girl