bit of a show in the kind of a life I lead. I never have been in love
with it myself, and only took to it in the first place because the
devil happened to drive me that way. The Lord knows I don't want to
lead any one else through such a muck. So it is a try?"

The look of defiance faded slowly out of her face as she stood gravely
regarding him. The man was in deadly earnest, and she felt the quiet
insistence of his manner. He really desired it to be decided in this
way, and somehow his will had become her law, although such a suspicion
had never once entered her mind.

"You bet, if you put it that way," she consented, simply, "but I reckon
that Mrs. Herndon is likely to wish I hadn't."

Together, yet scarcely exchanging another word, the two retraced their
steps slowly down the steep trail leading toward the little town in the
valley, walking unconsciously the pathway of fate, the way of all the
world.




CHAPTER VII

"I'VE COME HERE TO LIVE"

Widely as these two companions differed in temperament and experience,
it would be impossible to decide which felt the greater uneasiness at
the prospect immediately before them. The girl openly rebellious, the
man extremely doubtful, with reluctant steps they approached that tall,