"I was afraid it would be," she said. "It would almost have broken my heart to part from her, but Donald and I had made up our minds to let her go. It seemed the only way of giving the child a chance in life, and now this disease among the cattle has put an end to everything. Donald says we may be able to send her next year, but she will be nearly sixteen then, and time is precious. I wish I knew more myself, so that I could help my little girl, but, like so many other girls, I wasted my time at school. O dear! if children only realized what an education might mean to them some day, they wouldn't fritter away their time, as half of them do." "Susie," said Miss Graham, impulsively, "have you ever thought of writing to your brother Henry about Marjorie?" The sensitive color rose in Mrs. Graham's cheeks, and for a moment she looked almost as pretty as in the days when Jessie, in the rapturous devotion of her teens, had considered her "the loveliest sister-in-law in the world." "Yes, I have thought of it," she said, "but--but somehow I haven't been able to make up my mind to do it. You know my family never approved of Donald's coming out here. My brother offered him a position in his office in New York, but Donald said he had no head for business, and he loves this wild life, hard as it has been. I have never let my people know of our difficulties; they would have been kind, I daresay, but one hates to ask favors." "I know," said Miss Graham, comprehendingly; "still, for Marjorie's sake--" Mrs. Graham looked troubled. "Donald and I were talking about it only last night," she said. "It isn't right to deprive the child of advantages she might have, but think of sending her all the way to New York, even if Henry and his wife were willing to take her. Albuquerque would have been different; she could at least have come home for the holidays, but New York--why, think of it, Jessie, she has never been away from us for a night in her life!" Mrs. Graham paused abruptly, her face contracted with pain. The tears started to Miss Jessie's eyes, but her voice was still quite firm when she spoke again. "It would be very hard," she said, "harder for us perhaps than for Marjorie herself, and yet if it were the best thing to do--" Here the conversation was interrupted by Juanita, the Mexican maid of all work, who appeared with the startling announcement that the jam was boiling over on the stove, and Mrs. Graham hurried away to the kitchen, leaving her sister-in-law to her own reflections. CHAPTER II THE COMING OF UNDINE