gloom, she felt the dreary monotony of the days and years that were to
come, blotting out of her life all tone and color and forms of
brightness and beauty.

Then she saw, slowly emerging from the shadows of the meadow below, a
darker shadow--mysterious, formless--that seemed, as it approached, to
shape itself out of the very darkness through which it came, until,
still dim and indistinct, a horseman was opening the meadow gate. Before
the cowboy answered Jimmy's boyish "Hello!" Kitty knew that it was Phil.

The young woman's first impulse was to retreat to the safe seclusion of
her own room. But, even as she arose to her feet, she knew how that
would hurt the man who had always been so good to her; and so she went
generously down the walk to meet him where he would dismount and leave
his horse.

"Did you see father?" she asked, thinking as she spoke how little there
was for them to talk about.

"Why, no. What's the matter?" he returned quickly, pausing as if ready
to ride again at her word.

She laughed a little at his manner. "There is nothing the matter. He
just went over to see the Dean, that's all."

"I must have missed him crossing the meadow," returned Phil. "He always
goes around by the road."

Then, when he stood beside her, he added gently, "But there is something
the matter, Kitty. What is it? Lonesome for the bright lights?"