sturdiness, self-reliance shone from him, and once his make-up
had ceased to obtrude its clumsiness, he struck one as handsome.
His was a commanding physique, hard as the grim plains from which
he wrested his living.

As Martin drove into Fallon, his attention was directed toward
the architecture and the women. He observed that the average
homes were merely a little larger than his own--four, six, or
eight rooms instead of one, made a little trimmer with neat
porches and surrounded by well-cut lawns, instead of weeds. He,
with his new budget, could do better. Even Robinson's
well-constructed residence had probably cost only three thousand
more than he himself planned to spend. Its suggestion of
originality had been all but submerged by carpenters spoiled
through constant work on commonplace buildings. But to Martin it
was a marvellous mansion. He told himself that with such a place
moved out to his quarter-section, he could have stood on his
door-step and chosen whomever he wished for a wife.

It was an elemental materialism, difficult to understand, but it
was a language very clear to Martin. Marriage with the men and
women of his world was a practical business, arranged and
conducted by practical people, who lived practical lives, and
died practical deaths. The women who might pass his way could
deny their lust for concrete possessions, but their actions,
however concealed their motives, would give the lie to any
ineffectual glamour of romance they might attempt to fling over
their carefully measured adventures of the heart.

Martin smiled cynically as he let his thoughts drift along this