They approached the astonished ward and, Virginia, holding out both hands, said impulsively, “Margaret, can you ever forgive us for play actin’, as Uncle Tex called it. Your guardian isn’t an old man. He is my brother, Malcolm. I just don’t know how to go about explaining it,” she looked rather helplessly at the lad. “I’ll do it, Sis,” he said. “Margaret, the truth is that you wrote such—such—” even Malcolm was at a loss how to tell the tale. “Such horrid, disagreeable letters,” his ward put in, a dimple appearing as she smiled, “that you were sure you wouldn’t want to keep me. I don’t blame you a bit!” she declared vehemently. Then she surprised them both by impulsively kissing Virginia and saying: “I just _know_ that I’m going to be happy with _you_. It will be like having a sister, a really and truly one, won’t it?” “Hum-m!” said Malcolm with mock seriousness, “You aren’t so pleased to have a really, truly brother it would seem.” Then, when the girl flashed a smile at him, he added, “However I refuse to be your brother. I shall remain your stern guardian. Aren’t you skeered of me, as Uncle Tex says.” The lad’s tanned face was so good-looking and pleasant, his grey eyes so frank and merry that his ward laughingly shook her head as she happily replied: “I’m not skeered the least bit. I just know that I’m going to love you both.” That evening the three young people sat around the fireplace and had a most delightful get-acquainted visit. Virginia told Margaret about the stage-fright which had caused Uncle Tex to depart with speed to the mountains. “He won’t be back for a week, I’ll wager,” Malcolm laughingly declared. Then Margaret asked: “Virginia, what did you expect me to look like?” The other girl smiled but shook her head. “Don’t ask me,” she pleaded. “The picture in my imagination was so different from the real you, it would be a sacrilege to tell it.” The dimple again appeared, but it was a somber Margaret who replied. “I don’t blame you for thinking me just horrid, but I did so want to remain at boarding school with Babs.” Then turning to Virginia she asked: “Haven’t you ever had a yearning to go east to school?” Malcolm glanced quickly at his sister, who was gazing almost wistfully into the fire. It was a long moment before she replied, then she said: “Yes, Margaret, I did want to go. In fact I had my trunk packed and was to have started the next day for a seminary in the East, just out of New York, when father was taken ill. How glad I am that I had not already departed, for no one thought dad’s illness would be serious and they would not have sent for me. He left us one week from that day.” Then placing a loving hand on the arm of her brother who sat near, she added, “Malcolm was planning to attend a military academy that winter, but when dad was gone, brother’s presence was needed here on the ranch and I just couldn’t go and leave him alone.”