She'll send the sleigh back to-morrow." "I can find my way," said the lady briskly; "there's only one turn off, I believe, and that"-- "Leads to the stage station three miles west.

You needn't be afraid of gettin' off on that, for you'll likely see the down stage crossin' your road ez soon ez you get clear of the ranch." "Good-night," said the lady.

An arc of white spray sprang before the forward runner, and the sleigh vanished in the road.
Father and daughter returned to the office.
"You didn't get to know her, dad, did ye ?" queried Zuleika.
"No," responded Hays gravely, "except to see she wasn't no backwoods or mountaineering sort.

Now, there's the kind of woman, Zuly, as knows her own mind and yours too; that a man like your brother Jack oughter pick out when he marries." Zuleika's face beamed behind her father.

"You ain't goin' to sit up any longer, dad ?" she said, as she noticed him resume his seat by the fire.
"It's gettin' late, and you look mighty tuckered out with your night's work." "Do you know what she said, Zuly ?" returned her father, after a pause, which turned out to have been a long, silent laugh.
"No." "She said," he repeated slowly, "that she reckoned I came back here to-night to have the pleasure of her acquaintance!" He brought his two hands heavily down upon his knees, rubbing them down deliberately towards his ankles, and leaning forward with his face to the fire and a long-sustained smile of complete though tardy appreciation.
He was still in this attitude when Zuleika left him.