a ringing laugh that young men liked, but there were limits that few who
knew her overstepped. One or two had done so, but had been rebuked in
a way they wished to forget. Sadie had the tricks of an accomplished
coquette, but something of the heart of a prude.

The settlement got indistinct, and crossing a low rise, they drove past
a birch bluff where the twigs were breaking into tiny points of green.
Then they forded a creek and skirted a shallow lake, from which a flock
of ducks rose and flew North in a straggling wedge. Sandhills gleamed
on the ridges, tall cranes stalked about the hollows, and when the team,
laboring through the loose soil, crossed an elevation one could see the
plain roll back into the far distance. It was sharp-cut to the horizon;
only the varying color that changed from soft blue to white and yellow
in the foreground helped the eye to gage its vast extent. The snow had
bleached the grass, which glittered like silver in the strong sunlight.

A boisterous wind from the North-west drove white-edged clouds across
the sky, but the air was soft with a genial warmth that drew earthy
smells from the drying sod. In places, an emerald flush had begun to
spread across the withered grass and small flowers like crocuses were
pushing through. The freshness and hint of returning life reacted on
Charnock, and stirred his blood when he glanced at his companion. He
felt her physical allurement as he had not felt it before, but now and
then he resolutely looked away. Sadie had shown him marked favor, but
there was much he might lose.

She would not have charmed him when he first came to the prairie with
romantic hopes and vague ambitions. He had been fastidious then, and the
image of a very different girl occupied his heart. Even now he knew
the other stood for all that was best in life; for tender romances, and
sweetness, and high purpose. Helen had gracious qualities he had once
half-reverently admired. She loved pictures and books and music, and was
marked by a calm serenity that was very different from Sadie's restless
force. But it looked as if he had lost her, and Sadie, who could break
a horse and manage a hotel, was nearer his level. Yet he hesitated;
he must choose one of two paths, and when he had chosen could not turn
back.

"You don't talk much," Sadie remarked at length. "Guess you must be
thinking about your mortgage."

"I was, in a way. It was rather useless and very rude. However, I won't
thi