“No, Jean, or I should not have been here myself. Only think of it! I started on this journey on purpose to hide myself away from him for good and all. He had gone to England a year ago to claim a vast estate, and I planned to leave Chicago for this wild-goose chase on purpose to avoid him. I had no idea he’d ever think of taking up a business like freighting in a fur company. But there is no way to foresee the acts of a man who has more money than he knows what to do with. I suppose he grew weary of the Old World.” Mrs. McAlpin sighed. “Are you quite sure it was he?” “It could not have been anybody else. I’d know that voice if I heard it in Kamchatka. And I saw him, too. I cannot be mistaken.” “And you are determined not to live as his wife any more?” “I simply cannot, will not, live a lie any longer.” “Why do you tell me about this, Mrs. McAlpin? I’m nothing but an inexperienced girl.” “But you have more discretion than most grown-up people.” “That’s ’cause I’ve never been in love, I guess. They say that all people when in love are fools.” “I want you to go with me to meet that man to-night, Jean.” “I? What for?” “I’m going to talk it out; and I’ll need a witness.” “Absurd! You remind me of a moth around a candle. Does your mother know about this?” “No. I let her think an Indian was wanting me for a wife, and she remained hidden till the freighters had gone. The rest was easy. She is mortally afraid of Indians.” “I can’t imagine why you desire an interview with a man you are trying to avoid. How did you arrange a meeting?” “I sent him a note by Hal, who thinks I want to buy a buffalo robe like your mother’s.” “To be plain with you, Mrs. McAlpin, you’re a fool.” “I know it. But I confess to you that I want to see him so I can defy him.” “If you want sensible advice, go to daddie.” “I don’t want anybody’s advice. I just want you to accompany me, and keep hidden so as to be close at hand during the interview. He has no idea that he is going to meet Daphne Benson.” As Jean had been forbidden by her father to continue her rides in Mrs. McAlpin’s company, she did not feel satisfied with herself during this stolen interview. “Then you didn’t let your husband know it was you who wanted to see him?” “Of course not. What do you take me for?” “I’ll certainly take you for one of the silliest women on earth if you don’t give up this interview.” “I believe, after all, that you’re right, Jeanie. But I thought, if I met him unexpectedly out here in these wilds and put him upon his honor, he would never try to trouble me again. I have something very important to say to him.” “Then wait till we get to Oregon. We must go back to camp at once. It is time all honest folks were at home in bed.” They found Mrs. Ranger sitting alone on a wagon-tongue, shivering in the sharp night air. “I’m very ill, my daughter,” she said; “dangerously so. I’ve been watching and waiting for you the past half-hour. Where have you been?”