"It was only an hour ago I found we were so near, and I insisted upon coming across at once," he said. "You have changed a good deal since you left the prairie." "Yes," said the girl drily. "Is it very astonishing? You see, we don't spend half our time on horseback here. You didn't expect to find me a sharp-tongued Amazon still?" Clavering laughed as he looked at her, but the approval of what he saw was a trifle too evident in his black eyes. "Well," he said languidly, "you were our Princess then, and there was only one of your subjects' homage you never took kindly to. That was rough on him, because he was at least as devoted as the rest." "That," said the girl, with a trace of acerbity, "was because he tried to patronize me. Even if I haven't the right to it, I like respect." Clavering made a little gesture, and the deference in it was at least half sincere. "You command it, and I must try to make amends. Now, don't you want to hear about your father and the Range?" "No," said Hetty. "I had a talk with Larry to-day." "In New York?" "Yes. At the depot. He is going back to-morrow. You seem astonished?" Clavering appeared thoughtful. "Well, it's Chicago he usually goes to." "Usually?" said Hetty. "I scarcely remember him leaving Fremont once in three years." Clavering laughed. "Then he leaves it a good deal more often now. A man must have a little diversion when he lives as we do, and no doubt Larry feels lonely. You are here, and Heloise Durand has gone away." Hetty understood the implication, for she had some notion how the men who spent months together in the solitude of the prairie amused themselves in the cities. Nor had she and most of her neighbours wholly approved of the liberal views held by Heloise Durand. She had, however, an unquestioning belief in Larry, and none in the man beside her. "I scarcely think you need have been jealous of him," she said. "Larry wasn't Miss Durand's kind, and he couldn't be lonely. Everybody was fond of him." Clavering nodded. "Of course! Still, Larry hasn't quite so many friends lately." "Now," said Hetty with a little flash in her eyes, "when you've told me that you have got to tell the rest. What has he been doing?" "Ploughing!" said Clavering drily. "I did what I could to restrain him, but nobody ever could argue with Larry." Hetty laughed, though she felt a little dismay. It was then a serious affair to drive the wheat furrow in a cattle country, and the man who did it was apt to be regarded as an iconoclast. Nevertheless, she would not show that she recognized it. "Well," she said, "that isn't very dreadful. The plough is supreme in the Dakotas and Minnesota now. Sooner or later it has got to find a place in our country." "Still, that's not going to happen while your father lives."