The Collected Western Classics & Adventures Novels. William MacLeod Raine
to emerge—alone in the sunshine with this wonder that flowed from one to another by shining eyes, by finger touch, and then by meeting lips. He held her close, knew the sweet delight of contact with the supple, surrendered figure, then released her as she drew away in maidenly reserve.
“When shall we be married, Helen? Is the early part of next week too late?” he asked.
Still blushing, she straightened her hat. “That's ridiculous, sir. I haven't got used to the thought of you yet.”
“Plenty of time for that afterward. Then we'll say next week if that suits y'u.”
“But it doesn't. Don't you know that it is the lady's privilege to name the day? Besides, I want time to change my mind if I should decide to.”
“That's what I'm afraid of,” he laughed joyfully. “So I have to insist on an early marriage.”
“Insist?” she demurred.
“I've been told on the best of authority that I'm very obstinate,” he gayly answered.
“I have a mind of my own myself. If I ever marry you be sure I shall name the day, sir.”
“Will y'u marry me the day Nora does Jim?”
“We'll see.” The eyes slanted at him under the curved lashes, teased him delightfully. “Did Nora tell you she was going to marry Jim?”
Bannister looked mildly hurt. “My common sense has been telling it to me a month.”
“How long has your common sense been telling you about us?”
“I didn't use it when I fell in love with y'u,” he boldly laughed.
“Of all things to say!”
Ridgway of Montana
Story of To-day,
In Which the Hero is also the Villain
Chapter 1. Two Men and a Woman
Chapter 8. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton
Chapter 10. Harley Makes a Proposition
Chapter 11. Virginia Intervenes
Chapter 12. Aline Makes a Discovery
Chapter 15. Laska Opens a Door
Chapter 16. An Explosion in the Taurus
Chapter 18. Further Developments
Chapter 19. One Million Dollars
Chapter 20. A Little Lunch at Aphonse's
Chapter 22. "Not Guilty"—"Guilty"
Chapter 23. Aline Turns a Corner
Chapter 26. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement
To
JEAN
AND THAT KINGDOM
"Where you and I through this world's weather
Work, and give praise and thanks together."
Chapter 1.
Two Men and a Woman
"Mr. Ridgway, ma'am."
The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly.
She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she considered good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a determining factor. This she could find only in the man himself, in the masterful force that made him what he was. The sandstings of life did not disturb his confidence in his victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral obligations hamper his predatory career. He had a genius for success in whatever he undertook, pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct energy that never faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, like the men he used as tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her consent an empty formality conceded to convention. Perhaps he would marry her even if she did not want to, she told herself, with the sudden illuminating smile that was one of her chief charms.
But Ridgway's wary eyes, appraising her mood as she came forward to meet him, read none of this doubt in her frank greeting. Anything more sure and exquisite than the cultivation Virginia Balfour breathed he would have been hard put to it to conceive. That her gown and its accessories seemed to him merely the extension of a dainty personality was the highest compliment he could pay her charm, and an entirely unconscious one.
"Have