“That you, Jack?  You confounded sleepyhead!  Yes, wake up; this is me—­or I—­oh, bother the difference in grammar!  I’m going to be married right away.  Yes!  Wake up your sister—­don’t answer me back; bring her along, too—­you must!  Remind Agnes of the time I saved her from drowning in Lake Ronkonkoma—­I know it’s caddish to refer to it, but she must come with you.  Yes.  Nevada is here, waiting.  We’ve been engaged quite a while.  Some opposition among the relatives, you know, and we have to pull it off this way.  We’re waiting here for you.  Don’t let Agnes out-talk you—­bring her!  You will?  Good old boy!  I’ll order a carriage to call for you, double-quick time.  Confound you, Jack, you’re all right!”

Gilbert returned to the room where Nevada waited.

“My old friend, Jack Peyton, and his sister were to have been here at a quarter to twelve,” he explained; “but Jack is so confoundedly slow.  I’ve just ’phoned them to hurry.  They’ll be here in a few minutes.  I’m the happiest man in the world, Nevada!  What did you do with the letter I sent you to-day?”

“I’ve got it cinched here,” said Nevada, pulling it out from beneath her opera-cloak.

Gilbert drew the letter from the envelope and looked it over carefully.  Then he looked at Nevada thoughtfully.

“Didn’t you think it rather queer that I should ask you to come to my studio at midnight?” he asked.

“Why, no,” said Nevada, rounding her eyes.  “Not if you needed me.  Out West, when a pal sends you a hurry call—­ain’t that what you say here?—­we get there first and talk about it after the row is over.  And it’s usually snowing there, too, when things happen.  So I didn’t mind.”

Gilbert rushed into another room, and came back burdened with overcoats warranted to turn wind, rain, or snow.

“Put this raincoat on,” he said, holding it for her.  “We have a quarter of a mile to go.  Old Jack and his sister will be here in a few minutes.”  He began to struggle into a heavy coat.  “Oh, Nevada,” he said, “just look at the headlines on the front page of that evening paper on the table, will you?  It’s about your section of the West, and I know it will interest you.”

He waited a full minute, pretending to find trouble in the getting on of his overcoat, and then turned.  Nevada had not moved.  She was looking at him with strange and pensive directness.  Her cheeks had a flush on them beyond the color that had been contributed by the wind and snow; but her eyes were steady.

“I was going to tell you,” she said, “anyhow, before you—­before we—­before—­well, before anything.  Dad never gave me a day of schooling.  I never learned to read or write a darned word.  Now if—­”

Pounding their uncertain way up-stairs, the feet of Jack, the somnolent, and Agnes, the grateful, were heard.

V

When Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Warren were spinning softly homeward in a closed carriage, after the ceremony, Gilbert said: