he wheels were sufficient to render a much louder noise than
he could make inaudible to the dozing passengers. And now the engineer
pulled out the throttle-valve to make up for lost time, and the clatter
of the train faded into a distant roar, and its lights began to twinkle
into indistinctness.

"Damnation!"

A voice fell like a falling star: "Gentlemen do not use profane language
in ladies' company."

He first looked up in the air, as on the whole the likeliest quarter for
a voice to come from in this desert, then around. Just on the other
side of the track stood Miss Dwyer, smiling, with a somewhat constrained
attempt at self-possession. Lombard was a good deal taken aback, but
in his surprise he did not forget that this was the young lady who had
refused him that afternoon.

"I beg your pardon," he replied, with a stiff bow; "I did not suppose
that there were any ladies within hearing."

"I got out of the car supposing there was plenty of time to get a
specimen of sagebrush to carry home," she explained; "but when the cars
started, although I was but a little way off, I could not regain the
platform;" which, considering that she wore a tie-back of the then
prevalent fashion, was not surprising.

"Indeed!" replied Lombard, with the same formal manner.

"But won't the train come back for us?" she asked, in a more anxious
voice.

"That will depend on whether we are missed. Nobody will miss me. Mrs.
Eustis, if she hasn't gone to bed, may miss you."

"But she has. She went to bed before I left the car, and is asleep by
this time."

"That 's unfortunate," was his brief reply, as he lit a cigar and began
to smoke and contemplate the stars.

His services, so far as he could do anything for her, she should, as a
lady, command, but if she thought that he was going to do the agreeable
after what had happened a few hours ago, she was mightily mistaken.

There was a silence, and then she said, hesitatingly, "What are we going
to do?"

He glanced at her. Her attitude and the troubled expression of her face,
as well as her voice, indicated that the logic of the situation was
overthrowing the jaunty self-possession which she had at first affected.
The desert was staring her out of countenance. How his heart yearned
toward her! If she had only given him a right to take care of her, how
he would comfort her! what prodigies would he be capable of to succor
her! But this rising impulse of tenderness was turned to choki