“Lin, she looked at me that piercin’!

“And I goes on, for I was wound away up.  ‘And he will be happy, too,’ I says.  ’Miss Second Best will have a talk with him about your picture and little “Neighbor,” which he’ll not send back to yus, because the hurt in his heart is there.  And he will keep ’em out of sight somewheres after his talk with Miss Second Best.’  Lin, Lin, I laughed at them words of mine, but I was that wound up I was strange to myself.  And she watchin’ me that way!  And I says to her:  ’Miss Second Best will not be the crazy thing to think I am any wife of his standing in her way.  He will tell her about me.  He will tell how onced he thought he was solid married to me till Lusk came back; and she will drop me out of sight along with the rest that went nameless.  They was not uncomprehensible to you, was they?  You have learned something by livin’, I guess!  And Lin—­your Lin, not mine, nor never mine in heart for a day so deep as he’s yourn right now—­ he has been gay—­gay as any I’ve knowed.  Why, look at that face of his!  Could a boy with a face like that help bein’ gay?  But that don’t touch what’s the true Lin deep down.  Nor will his deep-down love for you hinder him like it will hinder you.  Don’t you know men and us is different when it comes to passion?  We’re all one thing then, but they ain’t simple.  They keep along with lots of other things.  I can’t make yus know, and I guess it takes a woman like I have been to learn their nature.  But you did know he loved you, and you sent him away, and you’ll be homeless in yer house when he has done the right thing by himself and found another girl.’

“Lin, all the while I was talkin’ all I knowed to her, without knowin’ what I’d be sayin’ next, for it come that unexpected, she was lookin’ at me with them steady eyes.  And all she says when I quit was, ’If I saw him I would tell him to find a home.’”

“Didn’t she tell yu’ she’d made me promise to keep away from seeing her?” asked the cow-puncher.

Mrs. Lusk laughed.  “Oh, you innocent!” said she.

“She said if I came she would leave Separ,” muttered McLean, brooding.

Again the large woman laughed out, but more harshly.

“I have kept my promise,” Lin continued.

“Keep it some more.  Sit here rotting in your chair till she goes away.  Maybe she’s gone.”

“What’s that?” said Lin.  But still she only laughed harshly.  “I could be there by to-morrow night,” he murmured.  Then his face softened.  “She would never do such a thing!” he said, to himself.

He had forgotten the woman at the table.  While she had told him matters that concerned him he had listened eagerly.  Now she was of no more interest than she had been before her story was begun.  She looked at his eyes as he sat thinking and dwelling upon his sweetheart.  She looked at him, and a longing welled up into her face.  A certain youth and heavy beauty relighted the features.