sends you a hurry call—ain’t that what you say here?—we get there first and talk about it after the row is over. And it’s usually snowing there, too, when things happen. So I didn’t mind.”
Gilbert rushed into another room, and came back burdened with overcoats warranted to turn wind, rain, or snow.
“Put this raincoat on,” he said, holding it for her. “We have a quarter of a mile to go. Old Jack and his sister will be here in a few minutes.” He began to struggle into a heavy coat. “Oh, Nevada,” he said, “just look at the head-lines on the front page of that evening paper on the table, will you? It’s about your section of the West, and I know it will interest you.”
He waited a full minute, pretending to find trouble in the getting on of his overcoat, and then turned. Nevada had not moved. She was looking at him with strange and pensive directness. Her cheeks had a flush on them beyond the color that had been contributed by the wind and snow; but her eyes were steady.
“I was going to tell you,” she said, “anyhow, before you—before we—before—well, before anything. Dad never gave me a day of school-
