e nature of it when they cast off restraint and
pressed forward to kiss the bride. In all her life Madeline had never
seen a bride kissed so much and so heartily, nor one so flushed and
disheveled and happy. This indeed was a joyful occasion. There was
nothing of the "effete East" about Alfred Hammond; he might have been a
Westerner all his days. When Madeline managed to get through the press
of cowboys to offer her congratulations Alfred gave her a bear hug and
a kiss. This appeared to fascinate the cowboys. With shining eyes
and faces aglow, with smiling, boyish boldness, they made a rush at
Madeline. For one instant her heart leaped to her throat. They looked
as if they could most shamelessly kiss and maul her. That little,
ugly-faced, soft-eyed, rude, tender-hearted ruffian, Monty Price, was
in the lead. He resembled a dragon actuated by sentiment. All at once
Madeline's instinctive antagonism to being touched by strange hands or
lips battled with a real, warm, and fun-loving desire to let the cowboys
work their will with her. But she saw Stewart hanging at the back of the
crowd, and something--some fierce, dark expression of pain--amazed her,
while it froze her desire to be kind. Then she did not know what change
must have come to her face and bearing; but she saw Monty fall back
sheepishly and the other cowboys draw aside to let her lead the way into
the patio.

The dinner began quietly enough with the cowboys divided between
embarrassment and voracious appetites that they evidently feared to
indulge. Wine, however, loosened their tongues, and when Stillwell got
up to make the speech everybody seemed to expect of him they greeted him
with a roar.

Stillwell was now one huge, mountainous smile. He was so happy that he
appeared on the verge of tears. He rambled on ecstatically till he came
to raise his glass.

"An' now, girls an' boys, let's all drink to the bride an' groom; to
their sincere an' lastin' love; to their happiness an' prosperity; to
their good health an' long life. Let's drink to the unitin' of the East
with the West. No man full of red blood an' the real breath of life
could resist a Western girl an' a good hoss an' God's free hand--that
open country out there. So we claim Al Hammond, an' may we be true to
him. An', friends, I think it fittin' that we drink to his sister an' to
our hopes. Heah's to the lady we hope to make our Majesty! Heah's to the
man who'll come ridin' out of the West, a fine, b