Stewart to write about?" asked Mrs. Maynard.

"Well, now that we are all together and have the time to talk this
matter out, I will say my say," replied Mr. Maynard, seating himself
and drawing Eleanor down beside him upon the divan.

"You remember the first year we were married--I had to visit Bear Forks
to investigate a loan one of our clients at the bank asked us to make
on a tract of timber-land? You wouldn't go with me when you heard we
would have to camp out at night and ride horses over rough mountain-
trails. That is the season you visited your school-friend in the East."

Mr. Maynard looked at his wife as he spoke and she nodded her head as
if the memory was not pleasant to recall. Her husband smiled an
enigmatical smile and continued his description.

"That is when I met Sam Brewster and his wife--they had been married
about as long as we had, and their happy ranch-life struck me as being
the most desirable existence I ever heard of."

Mrs. Maynard's lips curled in silent derision. She understood her
husband's yearning for a simple life in place of the frivolous and
empty excitement of the social career she had made for herself and
family.

"The country about the sections I visited is beautiful and healthy, and
as Nolla is ordered to a quiet, mountainous region for a time, I know
of no place so suitable. Besides, Anne Stewart has been there, too, and
she is wild over the place."