"Wheels within wheels!" Mrs. Bogardus sighed impatiently. "Hunting trips
are expensive, and--when young men are living on their fathers, it is
convenient sometimes to have a third. However, Paul goes, I half believe,
to prevent their making a descent upon us here."

"Well; I should ask them to come, or make it plain they were not
expected."

"Oh, would you?--if their mother was one of the nicest women, and your
friend? Besides, the reservation does not cover the whole valley. Banks
Bowen talks of a mine he wants to look at--I don't think it will make much
difference to the mine! This is simply to say that I wish Paul cared more
about the trip for its own sake."

"Well, frankly, I think he's better out of the way for the next fortnight.
The girls ought to go to bed early, and keep the roses in their cheeks for
the wedding. Moya's head is full of her frocks and fripperies. She is
trying to run a brace of sewing women; and all those boxes are coming from
the East to be 'inspected, and condemned' mostly. The child seems to make
a great many mistakes, doesn't she? About every other day I see a box as
big as a coffin in the hall, addressed to some dry-goods house, 'returned
by ----'"

"Moya should have sent to me for her things," said Mrs. Bogardus. "I am
the one who makes her return them. She can do much better when she is in
town herself. It doesn't matter, for the few weeks they will be away, what
she wears. I shall take her measures home with me and set the people to
work. She has never been _fitted_ in her life."