“Hello, Douglas!”

“Hello, Judith!  Where are you going?”

“Just out to jump the little wild mare.  Where have you been?”

“Down to the post-office.  I saw Dad heading for Charleton’s.”

“Yes, I’m alone.  Mother went over to Grandma’s.  The old lady is ailing.”

Douglas jumped from the saddle.  “You haven’t mentioned it, but, thanks, I will come in.  Is there any grub in the house?  I haven’t had dinner yet.”

Judith laughed.  “I was expecting that!  I just finished my own.  Come along!”

Douglas ate his dinner while Judith watched with speculative eyes.

“Peter is a funny old duck,” she said finally.

“Funny?  How?”

“O, he’s so lonely and so cross and such good company and so kind!  I’d like to have known him when he was young.”

Douglas looked at her closely.  “Jude, could you get to care for Peter if you thought he cared for you?”

“Who, me?  Peter?  What’s the matter with you, Doug?  Why, Peter is as old as Dad!”

“What difference does that make?”

“It wouldn’t make any difference if I cared for him,” admitted Judith, tapping thoughtfully on the tablecloth with slim brown fingers.

“But do you care for him, Judith?” insisted Douglas.

Judith’s fine lips twisted contemptuously.  “What an idiot you are, Doug!”

“Do you, hang it?  Answer me, Jude!”

“No!  No!  No!  Does that satisfy you?”

“Well, partially.  Guess I’ll have to ask Inez the same question.”

Judith smiled and shrugged her shoulders.  Douglas went on.

“I’ll bet if you could get the truth out of Inez, Judith, you’d find her suffering torments because she can’t marry.”

“Can’t marry?  Why can’t Inez marry?” demanded Judith belligerently.

“Because no decent man would marry her,” returned Douglas flatly.

Judith laughed.  “You poor old male, you!  Will you kindly tell me what man in this valley you consider more decent than Inez?”

“I’m decent,” said Douglas, flushing, but not the less firmly.

Judith’s eyes softened.  “You’ve kept that promise, Doug?”

“Yes,” briefly.  “And I wouldn’t have a woman like Inez if she was as beautiful as Cleopatra and as rich as Hetty Green!”

“Well,” airily, “that eliminates you, of course.  But let me warn you, Douglas, that if Inez Rodman really loved a man and wanted to marry him, he’d have about as much chance as a coyote used to have when Sister was young enough to run them.  Only, if Inez ever does love a man, she won’t marry him.  She’ll keep herself a mystery to him.  ’And forever would he love and she be fair.’”

“What’s that you’re quoting?” asked Douglas.

Judith, her eyes on the window through which shouldered the great flank of Dead Line Peak, repeated the immortal lines.  When she had finished, Douglas sighed.