Mrs. Stovall had promised Rowan to look after Ruth while he was away. In her tight-lipped, sardonic fashion she had come to be very fond of this girl who was the victim of the frontier tragedy that had so stirred Shoshone County. Silently she had watched the flirtation with Larry Silcott and the division between husband and wife. It was her firm opinion that Ruth needed a lesson to save her from her own foolishness. But what had occurred on the porch a half hour since had given her a new slant on the situation. Martha Stovall prided herself on her plain speaking. She had a reputation for it far and wide. She proposed to do some of it now. “Why don’t you want any supper?” The housekeeper set the tray down on a little table and faced her mistress. Every angular inch of her declared that she intended to settle this matter on the spot. Ruth was too astonished for words. Mrs. Stovall did not miss the opportunity. “What ails you at the supper? Are you sick?” The thin lips of the woman were pressed together in a straight line of determination. “I’m not hungry.” “Fiddlededee! It’s Norma Tait that’s spoiled your appetite. What call have you to be so highty-tighty? Isn’t she good enough for you?” “I would rather not discuss Mrs. Tait,” answered Ruth stiffly. “I don’t quite see why you should come into my room and talk to me like this, Mrs. Stovall.” “Don’t you? Well, maybe I’m not very polite, but what I’ve got to say is for your good—and I’m going to say it, even if you order me off the place when I get through.” The answer of Ruth was rather disconcerting. She said nothing. “When I introduced you to Norma Tait you ’most insulted her. I’d like to know why,” demanded the housekeeper. “I think I won’t talk about that,” replied the young woman with icy gentleness. “Then I’ll do the talking. You’ve heard that fool story about Norma and Mac. I’ll bet a cooky that’s what is the matter with you.” The shrewd little eyes of Martha Stovall gimleted the girl. “It’s all a pack of lies. I ought to know, for it was me that asked Mac to drive Norma down to Wagon Wheel in his car.” “You!” The astonishment of the girl leaped from her in the word. The housekeeper nodded. “Want I should tell you all about it?” The acidity in her voice was less pronounced. “Please.” “You know that Mac used to be engaged to her and that after a quarrel Norma ran away with Tait and married him?” “Yes.” “Joe Tait was a brute. He bullied Norma and abused her. When she couldn’t stand it any longer she ran away and ’phoned me to get a rig to have her taken to Wagon Wheel, so’s she could go to Laramie, where her sister lives.” It was as though a weight were lifting from Ruth’s heart. She waited, her big eyes fixed on those of Mrs. Stovall.