Mrs. Collins happened to be looking straight at her out of her big brown eyes. Wherefore she could not help observing the pink glow that deepened in the soft cheeks. “He hasn't preferred me much lately.” Nellie knitted her brow in perplexity. “I don't understand. Steve's been away, too, nearly all the time. Something is going on that we don't know about.” “Not that I care. Mr. Neill is welcome to stay away.” Her new friend shot a swift slant look at her. “I don't suppose you trample on him much.” Margaret flushed. “No, I don't. It's the other way. I never saw anybody so rude. He does not seem to have any saving sense of the proper thing.” “He's a man, dearie, and a good one. He may be untrammeled by convention, but he is clean and brave. He has eyes that look through cowardice and treachery, fine strong eyes that are honest and unafraid.” “Dear me, you must have studied them a good deal to see all that in them,” said Miss Peggy lightly, yet pleased withal. “My dear,” reproached her friend, so seriously that Peggy repented. “I didn't really mean it,” she laughed. “I've heard already on good authority that you see no man's eyes except the handsome ones in the face of Mr. Tim Collins.” “I do think Tim has fine eyes,” blushed the accused. “No doubt of it. Since you have been admiring my young man I must praise yours,” teased Miss Kinney. “Am I to wish you joy? I didn't know he was your young man,” flashed back the other. “I understand that you have been trying to put him off on me.” “You'll find he does not need any 'putting off' on anybody.” “At least, he has a good friend in you. I think I'll tell him, so that when he does condescend to become interested in a young woman he may refer her to you for a recommendation.” The young wife borrowed for the occasion some of Miss Peggy's audacity. “I'm recommending him to that young woman now, my dear,” she made answer. Dunke's party left for the mine on schedule time, Water-proof coats and high lace-boots had been borrowed for the ladies as a protection against the moisture they were sure to meet in the tunnels one thousand feet below the ground. The mine-owner had had the hoisting-engine started for the occasion, and the cage took them down as swiftly and as smoothly as a metropolitan elevator. Nevertheless Margaret clung tightly to her friend, for if was her first experience of the kind. She had never before dropped nearly a quarter of a mile straight down into the heart of the earth and she felt a smothered sensation, a sense of danger induced by her unaccustomed surroundings. It is the unknown that awes, and when she first stepped from the cage and peered down the long, low tunnel through which a tramway ran she caught her breath rather quickly. She had an active imagination, and she conjured cave-ins, explosions, and all the other mine horrors she had read about.