'd as lieve put your ideal into a painting I will give you a
suggestion that will be original if nothing else," he observed.

"What's that?"

"Why, having in view these white alkali-patches that chiefly
characterize Nevada, paint her as a leper."

"That's horrid! You needn't talk to me any more," she exclaimed
emphatically.

With this sort of chatter they had beguiled the time since leaving San
Francisco the morning of the day before. Acquaintances are indeed made
as rapidly on an overland train as on an ocean steamship, but theirs had
dated from the preceding winter, during which they had often met in San
Francisco. When Mr. Lombard heard that Miss Dwyer and Mrs. Eustis, her
invalid sister, were going East in April, he discovered that he would
have business to attend to in New York at about that time; and oddly
enough--that is, if you choose to take that view of it--when the ladies
came to go it turned out that Lombard had taken his ticket for the
selfsame train and identical sleeping-car. The result of which was that
he had the privilege of handing Miss Dwyer in and out at the
eating-stations, of bringing Mrs. Eustis her cup of tea in the car, and
of sharing Miss Dwyer's seat and monopolizing her conversation when he
had a mind to, which was most of the time. A bright and congenial
companion has this advantage over a book, that he or she is an author
whom you can make discourse on any subject you please, instead of being
obliged to follow an arbitrary selection by another, as when you commune
with the printed page.

By way of peace-offering for his blasphemy in calling the Nevada desert
a leper, Lombard had embezzled a couple of chairs from the smoking-room
and carried them to the rear platform of the car, which happened to be
the last of the train, and invited Miss Dwyer to come thither and see
the scenery. Whether she had wanted to pardon him or not, he knew very
well that this was a temptation which she could not resist, for the
rear platform was the best spot for observation on the entire train,
unless it were the cowcatcher of the locomotive.

The April sun mingled with the frosty air like whiskey with ice-water,
producing an effect cool but exhilarating. As she sat in the door of the
little passage leading to the platform she scarcely needed the shawl
which he wrapped about her with absurdly exaggerated solicitude. One of
the most unmistakable symptoms of the lover is the absorbing and
superfluous care wi