"Want to see a pretty sight?" he said. She nodded and followed him out. For miles in front of them stretched the hilly country, dotted here and there in the half light by clumps of trees and bushes showing inky black in the night, while in the distance stretched the mountains, irregular, dark, and mysterious looking. Over all shone the moon, while the stars--but who can describe the stars in a desert country? "Makes you feel like you'd never seen stars before, doesn't it?" asked Scott, as the girl stood, drinking in the scene. "Doesn't it? So many, so bright and so twinkly! Do you know, I don't wonder that Mrs. Conrad's rather a wonderful woman--living all the time with this." "Well, she is, rather. She's had a hard life, too; lots of trouble." "Wasn't her husband--I mean, weren't they happy together?" asked the girl. "Why, yes, I guess they were," replied Scott, cautiously. "I reckon they were like most married folks, rubbed along together pretty well." "But you said she'd had lots of trouble." Scott smiled. "And you made up your mind right off that it was a love affair, eh? You're a good deal of a kid, aren't you?" Polly flushed. "I think you're rather inconsiderate," she said, crossly. "You start up my curiosity and then you make fun of me. I don't think I like the way you treat me, most of the time." "I don't think it's fair, myself," said Scott, penitently. "I suppose a girl brought up as you've been oughtn't to be blamed for seeing a love affair behind every bush." "Why do you say brought up as I've been?" "I mean having everything easy; everything done for you. No real hard knocks in life." "Oh, well, if that's all, I'll probably have hard knocks enough before I get through. Most people do, I've noticed," replied Polly, easily. "I'll probably marry somebody who'll spend all his money and leave me eight children to support, or else I'll die a rheumaticky old maid. Will that satisfy you?" "Don't talk that way," said Scott, sharply. "It's unlucky." "Unlucky? Are you superstitious?" "No, but I've noticed that people who are always expecting bad luck usually get it. I'd hate to have you----" he stopped, and Polly caught a look in his eyes that startled her. "Die a rheumaticky old maid?" she said, nervously. "Well, I don't want to, either, but it seems to me that the number of people who get out of this world without a lot of trouble of some kind or other is a pretty small one, so you needn't begrudge me a few years of easy going. What was Mrs. Conrad's trouble?" "She's had a good deal of it first and last, but I was thinking of her husband's death, two years ago." "Did you know her then?"