The room was empty, all the men having gone out upon the walk to escape the heat, and she took her seat behind her desk and gave herself up to a consideration of the life to which the possession of so much wealth would introduce her. She could have unlimited new gowns, she could travel, and she could rescue her mother from drudgery and worry. These things she could discern--but of the larger life which money could open to her she could only vaguely dream. The first effect of marrying Marshall Haney would be to cut short her life in Sibley; the second, the establishment of a home in the great camps about them. As she looked around the dingy room buzzing with flies, she experienced a premonitory pang of the pain she would suffer in going out of its doors forever. When Haney came back an hour later, he read in the cold, serious look she gave him a warning, therefore he spoke but a few words on commonplace subjects, and returned to his seat on the walk to await a change in her mood. This meekness on the part of a powerful man moved the girl, and a little later she went to the doorway and said to the crowd generally, "It's a wonder some fellow wouldn't open a cantaloupe or something." Haney put his finger to his mouth and whistled to the grocer opposite. He came on the run, alert for trade. "Roll up a couple of big melons," called Haney, largely. "We're all drying to cinders over here." The loafers cheered, but the girl said, in a lower voice, "I was only joking." "What you say goes," he replied, with significance. She did not stay to see the melons cut, but went back to her desk, and he brought a choice slice in to her. She took it, but she said, "You mustn't think you own me--not yet." Her tone was resentful. "I don't want you to say things like that--before people." "Like what?" he asked. She did not answer. He went on: "I don't mean to assume anything, God knows. I'm only waitin' and hopin'. I'll go away if you want me to and let you think it over alone." "I wish you would," she said, realizing that this committed her to at least a consideration of his proposal. He held out his hand. "Good-bye--till next Saturday." She put her small, brown hand in his. He crushed it hard and his bold face softened. "I need you, my girl. Sure I do!" And in his eyes was something very winning. CHAPTER II MARSHALL HANEY CHANGES HEART