he turned suddenly
and hid her face in her hands.

Gray crossed quickly to her side, saying: "There! We've overdone it the
first day, and you're tired."

"I _ain't_ tired." His sympathy brought audible sobs; the girl's
shoulders began to heave.

"Well, _I_ am," the mother complained. "I'm wore to the bone. Allie!
You dry up an' stop that snivelin' so we kin go home and I kin let my
feet swell, an' scream."

"You're not too tired, I hope, to have dinner with Allie and me in the
big dining room at the Ajax?" Gray said, gayly. "You'll be all right
after an hour's rest, and--'I want to show her off, if her nose isn't
too red."

"I 'ain't seen that girl cry in ten years," Ma declared, in mingled
wonderment and irritation. "Why, she didn't cry when Number One blowed
in."

Allie spoke between her sobs. "There wasn't nothin' to cry for, then.
But--Miss Good said I--I'd look jest as purty as other folks when I got
fixed up. An' _he_ says--I do."

Gray decided that all women are vain. Nevertheless, it surprised him to
discover the trait so early in Allegheny Briskow.

It was on the second day thereafter that Gus Briskow appeared at the
hotel. He came unexpectedly, and he still wore his rough ranch clothes.
After an hour or more spent with his wife and daughter, he went down to
Gray's room and thanked him for the assistance he had rendered the two
women.

Followed a few moments of desultory conversation, then he put an abrupt
question: "Mr. Gray, you're a rich man, ain't you?"

"I--am so considered."

"Um-m! Dunno's I'm glad or sorry."

"Indeed! What difference can it make to you?"

"A lot. It's like this: my boy Buddy has took a turrible shine to you,
an' he can't talk about nothin' else. I was sort of hopin'--"

"Yes?"

"Buddy's ignerunt. He can read an' write an' figger some, but he's got
about the same company manners as a steer, an' he's skeered of crowds.
When he sees strangers he's liable to charge 'em or else throw up his
head an' his tail an' run plumb over a cliff. He'd ought to go to
school, but he says he's too big, an' he'd have to set with a lot of
little children. Him an' Allie's alike, that way--it r'ars 'em up on
their hind feet to be laughed at."

"Get a tutor for them."

"A what?" When Gray had explained the meaning of the word, Mr.
Briskow's face cleared. "That's what I figgered on, but I didn't know
what you called 'em. That's why I'm sorry you're so well off. Y' see
I'd of paid you an