indeed tragic, filled him with a sort of wondering pity. As he
continued to look at her these feelings grew until finally he
turned away his face. With his chin in his hands he stared out
somberly into the blinding heat. He had met few women, of late
years, and never one quite like this--never one, for instance, who
made him feel so dissatisfied with his own shortcomings.

After a time he rose and withdrew to the shelter of another tree,
there to content himself with mental images of his guest.

But one cannot sleep well with a tropic sun in the heavens, and
since there was really nothing for her to do until the heat
abated, Alaire, when she awoke, obliged the Ranger to amuse her.

Although she was in fact younger than he, married life had matured
her, and she treated him therefore like a boy. Law did not object.
Mrs. Austin's position in life was such that most men were humble
in her presence, and now her superior wisdom seemed to excite the
Ranger's liveliest admiration. Only now and then, as if in an
unguarded moment, did he appear to forget himself and speak with
an authority equaling her own. What he said at such times
indicated either a remarkably retentive memory or else an ability
to think along original lines too rare among men of his kind to be
easily credited.

For instance, during a discussion of the Mexican situation--and of
course their talk drifted thither, for at the moment it was the
one vitally interesting topic along the border--he excused the
barbarous practices of the Mexican soldiers by saying: