even in these preliminary words the importance of what was
to follow, and was unwilling to lose a single syllable. Eleanor caught
the interest and sympathy of the girl's face as she paused for a moment,
and it gave her strength.

"Were you quite alone there?" Alice asked.

"Practically alone--the nearest ranch was four miles from ours.
Naturally, we saw few people, the most constant visitor at this time
being a young man who owned the ranch next to ours, who, during the
year, had ridden over to see us with increasing frequency. His name was
Ralph Buckner, and he seemed to us to be a characteristic product of the
West--with his large frame, bluff manners, and frank, open countenance.
We all liked him, and the fact that he differed so much from the Eastern
men I had known perhaps caused me to show a greater interest in him than
I really felt. At all events, no girl was ever more genuinely surprised
by an offer of marriage than I was, when it came unexpectedly one day,
with that determination back of it to secure what he desired which was a
part of the man himself. I did manage to collect my senses long enough
to insist that I have time to think the matter over--for I had no idea
of marrying him; but, much to my surprise, father approved the idea from
the moment I told him of the proposal. Then it developed that Ralph had
already approached him on the subject. Father, poor dear, thought only
of my future and what he believed would be my happiness. It was so
evident that I held in my hands the solution of his most serious problem
that he never knew the misgivings I felt from the first. He could live
on at the ranch for the present, busying himself with the work which
kept him out-of-doors; then later, if he preferred, he could come and
live with us."

"Couldn't he see what a sacrifice it meant to you?" Alice asked.

"No, dear; you must remember that, in his way, Ralph was an attractive
fellow. He had been successful with his ranch; he was agreeable and
intelligent; his Western boldness, as it seemed to me, was at times
tempered with a certain gentleness hardly to be expected in a man of his
nature; and, all in all, he was a man to whom any girl could at least
give respect, and affection might come later. It meant settling down in
the West for the rest of my life, but this was inevitable, anyway. I
must forget the old friends and the old associations, and could I not do
this better with a husband's help than alone? I ask