I scarcely think you need worry about one trifle, any way," he said. "If
you think Miss Torrance or Miss Schuyler wanted Clavering to drive them,
you must be unusually dense. They only asked him to because they have a
sense of fairness, and I'd stake a good many dollars on the fact that when
Miss Schuyler first saw him she was convulsed with laughter."

"Did Miss Torrance seem amused?" Grant asked eagerly.

"Yes," said Breckenridge decisively. "She did though she tried to hide it.
Miss Torrance has, of course, a nice appreciation of what is becoming. In
fact, her taste is only slightly excelled by Miss Schuyler's."

Grant stared at him for a moment, and then for the first time, during
several anxious months, broke into a great peal of laughter.

XXII

THE CAVALRY OFFICER

The winter was relaxing its iron grip at last and there were alternations
of snow and thaw and frost when one evening a few of his scattered
neighbours assembled at Allonby's ranch. Clavering was there, with
Torrance, Hetty, and Miss Schuyler, among the rest; but though the guests
made a spirited attempt to appear unconcerned, the signs of care were
plainer in their faces than when they last met, and there were times when
the witty sally fell curiously flat. The strain was beginning to tell, and
even the most optimistic realized that the legislature of the State was
more inclined to resent than yield to any further pressure that could be
exerted by the cattle-barons. The latter were, however, proud and stubborn
men, who had unostentatiously directed affairs so long that they found it
difficult to grasp the fact that their ascendancy was vanishing. Showing a
bold front still, they stubbornly disputed possession of every acre of
land the homesteaders laid claim upon. The latters' patience was almost
gone, and the more fiery spirits were commencing to obstruct their
leader's schemes by individual retaliation and occasionally purposeless
aggression.

Torrance seemed older and grimmer, his daughter paler, and there were
moments when anxiety was apparent even in Clavering's usually careless
face. He at least, was already feeling the pinch of straitened finances,
and his only consolations were the increasing confidence that Torrance
reposed in him, and Hetty's graciousness since his capture by the
homesteaders. It was, perhaps, not astonishing that he should mistake its
meaning, for he had no means of knowing, as Miss Schuyler did, that the
cat