"But what did you know about us?"
She kept it a moment as if it were too good to give him all at once. "Everything!"
He seemed indeed almost afraid to touch it. "At 'Missoura Top'?"
"Why not? It's a growing place—forty thousand the last census." She hesitated; then as if her warrant should be slightly more personal: "My husband left it to me."
The young man presently changed his posture. "You're a widow?"
Nothing was wanting to the simplicity of her quiet assent. "A very lone woman." Her face, for a moment, had the vision of a long distance. "My loneliness is great enough to want something big to hold it—and my taste good enough to want something beautiful. You see, I had your picture."
Yule's innocence made a movement. "Mine?"
Her smile reassured him; she nodded toward the main entrance. "A water colour I chanced on in Boston."
"In Boston?"
She stared. "Haven't you heard of Boston either?"
"Yes—but what has Boston heard of me?"
"It wasn't 'you,' unfortunately—it was your
