Forbes explained their early return, and spoke of the ranch. "It might be a garden, this territory, if only it had water enough," he said; "it has a future, possibly, but its present is just a little dismal, I think. Are you greatly attached to the life here, Mrs. Cairness?" He was studying her, and she knew it, though his glance swept the outlook comprehensively, and she was watching the mail-carrier riding toward them along the road. It was the brother of the little girl who followed along behind them, and who ran off now to meet him, calling and waving her hand. "Yes," she said, "I am very much attached to it. I was born to it." "Do you care for it so much that you would not be happy in any other?" "That would depend," she answered with her enigmatical, slow smile; "I could be happy almost anywhere with Mr. Cairness." "Of course," he laughed tolerantly, "I dare say any wilderness were paradise with him." Felipa smiled again. "I might be happy," she went on, "but I probably should not live very long. I have Indian blood in my veins; and we die easily in a too much civilization." That evening they sat talking together long after the late dinner. But a little before midnight Felipa left them upon the porch, smoking and still going over the past. They had so much to say of matters that she in no way understood. The world they spoke of and its language were quite foreign to her. She knew that her husband was where she could never follow him, and she felt the first utter dreariness of jealousy--the jealousy of the intellectual, so much more unendurable than that of the material. With the things of the flesh there can be the vindictive hope, the certainty indeed, that they will lose their charm with time, that the gold will tarnish and the gray come above the green, but a thought is dearer for every year that it is held, and its beauty does not fade away. The things of the flesh we may even mar ourselves, if the rage overpowers us, but those of the intellect are not to be reached or destroyed; and Felipa felt it as she turned from them and went into the house. There was a big moon, already on the wane, floating very high in the heavens, and the plain was a silvery sheen. "This is all very beautiful," said Forbes, after a silence. Cairness did not see that it called for a reply, and he made none. "But it is doing Mrs. Cairness an injustice, if you don't mind my saying so." "What do you mean?" asked Cairness, rather more than a trifle coldly. He had all but forgotten the matter of that afternoon. Felipa had redeemed herself through the evening, so that he had reason to be proud of her. "I used to know Mrs. Cairness in Washington," Forbes went on, undisturbed; "she has probably told you so." Cairness was surprised almost into showing his surprise. Felipa had said nothing of it to him. And he knew well enough that she never forgot a face. He felt that he was in a false position, but he answered "Yes?" non-committally.