ugh a little, though the sound of it seemed foolish in
my own startled ears.

"That's rather a coincidence, isn't it?" I blithely admitted. "For so
am I."

I could see the Scotch-granite look that came into the thick-lashed
tourmaline eyes. And they'd be lovely eyes, I had to admit, if they
were only a little softer.

"That's unfortunate," was her ladyship's curt retort.

"It's more than unfortunate," I agreed, "it's extremely awkward."

"Why?" she snapped, plainly annoyed at my lightness of tone.

"Because he can't possibly have both of us, you know--unless he's
willing to migrate over to that Mormon colony at Red-Deer. And even
there, I understand, they're not doing it now."

"I'm afraid this is something much too serious to joke about," Lady
Alicia informed me.

"But it strikes me as essentially humorous," I told her.

"I'm afraid," she countered, "that it's apt to prove essentially
tragic."

"But he happens to be _my_ husband," I observed.

"Only in form, I fancy, if he cares for some one else," was her
ladyship's deliberate reply.

"Then he has acknowledged that--that you've captured him?" I inquired,
slowly but surely awakening to the sheer audacity of the lady in the
buckskin gauntlets.

"Isn't that rather--er--primitive?" inquired Lady Allie, paler than
ever.

"If you mean coming and squabbling over another woman's husband, I'd
call it distinctly prehistoric," I said with a dangerous little red
light dancing before my eyes. "It's so original that it's aboriginal.
But I'm still at a loss to know just what your motive is, or what you
want."

"I want an end to this intolerable situation," my visitor averred.

"Intolerable to whom?" I inquired.

"To me, to Duncan, and to _you_, if you are the right sort of woman,"
was Lady Alicia's retort. And still again I was impressed by the
colossal egoism of the woman confronting me, the woman ready to ride
rough-shod over the world, for all her sparkling veneer of civilization,
as long, as she might reach her own selfish ends.

"Since you mention Duncan, I'd like to ask if you're speaking now as
his cousin, or as his mistress?"

Lady Alicia's stare locked with mine. She was making a sacrificial
effort, I could see, to remain calm.

"I'm speaking as some one who is slightly interested in his happiness,
and his future," was her coldly intoned reply.

"And has my husband acknowledged that his happiness and his future
remain in your hands?" I asked.