“Have you a partner?”

“Yes, two, in fact; but one of them lives in New Mexico just now, so he does not count.  That’s Bert Talcott.  He’s a New York fellow.  The other’s English, a Devonshire man.  Geoff Templestowe is his name.”

“Is he nice?”

“You can just bet your pile that he is,” said Clarence, who seemed to have assimilated Western slang with the rest of the West.  “Wait till I bring him to see you.  We’ll come in on purpose some day soon.  Well, I must be going.  Good-by, Clover; good-by, Phil.  It’s awfully jolly to have you here.”

“I never should have guessed who it was,” remarked Clover, as they watched the active figure canter down the street and turn for a last flourish of the hat.  “He was the roughest, scrubbiest boy when we last met.  What a fine-looking fellow he has grown to be, and how well he rides!”

“No wonder; a fellow who can have a horse whenever he has a mind to,” said Phil, enviously.  “Life on a ranch must be great fun, I think.”

“Yes; in one way, but pretty rough and lonely too, sometimes.  It will be nice to go out and see Clarence’s, if we can get some lady to go with us, won’t it?”

“Well, just don’t let it be Mrs. Watson, whoever else it is.  She would spoil it all if she went.”

“Now, Philly, don’t.  We’re supposed to be leaning on her for support.”

“Oh, come now, lean on that old thing!  Why she couldn’t support a postage stamp standing edgewise, as the man says in the play.  Do you suppose I don’t know how you have to look out for her and do everything?  She’s not a bit of use.”

“Yes; but you and I have got to be polite to her, Philly.  We mustn’t forget that.”

“Oh, I’ll be polite enough, if she will just leave us alone,” retorted Phil.

Promising!

CHAPTER VII.

MAKING ACQUAINTANCE.

Phil was better than his word.  He was never uncivil to Mrs. Watson, and his distant manners, which really signified distaste, were set down by that lady to boyish shyness.

“They often are like that when they are young,” she told Clover; “but they get bravely over it after a while.  He’ll outgrow it, dear, and you mustn’t let it worry you a bit.”

Meanwhile, Mrs. Watson’s own flow of conversation was so ample that there was never any danger of awkward silences when she was present, which was a comfort.  She had taken Clover into high favor now, and Clover deserved it,—­for though she protected herself against encroachments, and resolutely kept the greater part of her time free for Phil, she was always considerate, and sweet in manner to the older lady, and she found spare half-hours every day in which to sit and go out with her, so that she should not feel neglected.  Mrs. Watson grew quite fond of her “young friend,” though she stood a little in awe of her too, and was disposed to be jealous if any one showed more attention to Clover than to herself.