"Now," said Hetty, with a sparkle in her eyes, "you know quite well that if some of them are mistaken they will do nothing mean. Can't they have their notions and be straight men?" "It is quite difficult to believe it," said Clavering. "I will tell you what one or two of them did. There was trouble down at Gordon's place fifty miles west, and his cow-boys whipped off a band of Dutchmen who wanted to pull his fences down. Well, they came back a night or two later with a mob of Americans, and laid hands on the homestead. We are proud of the respect we pay women in this country, Miss Schuyler, but that night Mrs. Gordon's and her daughters' rooms were broken into, and the girls turned out on the prairie. It was raining, and I believe they were not even allowed to provide themselves with suitable clothing. Of course, nothing of that kind could happen here, or I would not have told you." Hetty's voice was curiously quiet as she asked, "Was nothing done to provoke them?" "Yes," said Clavering, with a dry smile, "Gordon shot one of them; but is it astonishing? What would you expect of an American if a horde of rabble who held nothing sacred poured into his house at night? Oh, yes, he shot one of them, and would have given them the magazine, only that somebody felled him with an axe. The Dutchman was only grazed, but Gordon is lying senseless still." There was an impressive silence, and the man sat still with the veins on his forehead a trifle swollen and a glow in his eyes. His story was also accurate, so far as it went; but he had, with a purpose, not told the whole of it. "You are sure there were Americans among them?" asked Hetty, very quietly. "They were led by Americans. You know one or two of them." "No," said Hetty, almost fiercely. "I don't know. But Larry wasn't there?" Clavering shook his head, but there was a curious incisiveness in his tone. "Still, we found out that his committee was consulted and countenanced the affair." "Then Larry wasn't at the meeting," said Miss Torrance. "He couldn't have been." Clavering made her a little and very graceful inclination. "One would respect such faith as yours." Miss Schuyler, who was a young woman of some penetration, deftly changed the topic, and Clavering came near to pleasing her, but he did not quite succeed, before he took his departure. Then Hetty glanced inquiringly at her companion. Flora Schuyler nodded. "I know just what you mean, and I was mistaken." "Yes?" said Hetty. "Then you like him?" Miss Schuyler shook her head. "No. I fancied he was clever, and he didn't come up to my expectations. You see, he was too obvious." "About Larry?" "Yes. Are you not just a little inconsistent, Hetty?" Miss Torrance laughed. "I don't know," she said. "I am, of course, quite angry with Larry, but nobody else has a right to abuse him."