She started up from her chair, breathless, and stood poised on the edge of the platform, the slender fingers of one hand grasping the projecting edge of the desk. "You’re—going—East to—to stay?" He did not turn, and, if he noticed any change in her intonation, he gave no sign of it. "I’ve finished here. The mine is leased. I’m going back to New York." "I can’t believe—you never told me. It’s curious you shouldn’t have said something before." "Why should I? No man likes to admit that he’s a failure." "You’ve leased the ’Lone Tree’? To whom?" "To Wray. He made me a proposition yesterday. I’ve accepted it. In fact, I’m out of the thing altogether." "Jeff? I don’t understand. Why, only yesterday he——" Was it loyalty to Jeff that made her pause? He turned quickly. "What—did he say anything?" "Oh, nothing—only that the mine was a failure. That seems curious if he had decided to lease it." "Oh!" he said smiling, "it’s only Wray’s way of doing business. When anything is hanging fire he always says exactly what he doesn’t mean. He doesn’t worry me. I’ve gone over that hole with a fine-tooth comb, and I’m glad to get out of it." "And out of Mesa City?" Then, with an attempt at carelessness, "Of course we’ll all miss you," she said dully. "Don’t! You mustn’t speak to me in that way. I’ve always been pretty decent to you. You’ve never believed in me, but that’s because you’ve never believed in any man. I’ve tried to show you how differently I felt——" "By kissing me?" she mocked scornfully. Bent changed his tone. "See here, Camilla," he said, "I’m not in a mood to be trifled with. I can’t go away from here and leave you in this God-forsaken hole. There isn’t a person here fit for you to associate with. It will drive you mad in another year. Do you ever try to picture what your future out here is going to be?" "Haven’t I?" bitterly. "You’ve seen them out on the ranches, haven’t you? Slabsided, gingham scarecrows in sunbonnets, brown and wrinkled like dried peaches, moving all day from kitchen to bedroom, from bedroom to barn, and back again——" "Yes, yes," said Camilla, her head in her hands. "I’ve seen them." "Without one thought in life but the successes of their husbands—the hay crop, the price of cattle; without other diversion than the visit to Kinney, the new hat and frock once a year (a year behind the fashion); their only companions women like themselves, with the same tastes, the same thoughts, the same habits——" "O God!" whispered the girl, laying a restraining hand on his arm, "don’t go on! I can’t stand it." He clasped her hands in both of his own. "Don’t you see it’s impossible?" he whispered. "You weren’t made for that kind of thing. Your bloom would fade like theirs, only sooner because of your fineness. You’d never grow like those women, because it isn’t in you to be ugly. But you’d fade early." "Yes," she said, "I know it."