The Silver Horde

nothing," said Mildred Wayland, when Boyd had rec

as a miner, I am a v

er shoulders i

l to me as 'failure'-I suppose, because father has never fail

r, also, but you see I've forgo

narrative with breathless interest. The story had been substantially the same as that which, once before, he had related to Cherry Malotte; but now the facts were deeply, intimately colored with all the young man's natural enthu

hat for me," she m

the on

man I know would take t

mount to-that." He snapped his fingers. "It was only the unending desolation that hurt; i

and I promised to wait. Even if I had not-cared for you, I would have kept

, my Lady?" He leane

ely I lost my head about you?" She laughed softly. "I used to think you wore a football suit better than anybody in the world! Sometimes I suspect that

time with nothing but a memory, while you have had other things t

O

them, but every mention of you was like a knife stab to me. Jealousy drove me to memorize the name of every man with whom you were s

d her head to one side and glanced at hi

with a caravan of su

ors don't come in cara

dden instruments. God! how I tortured myself! You were never out of mind for an hour. My days were given to you, and I used to pray that my dreams might hold nothing but you. You have been my fetish from the first day I met you, and my worship has grown blinder ever

understanding; her smile was almost wistfully sweet. To her lover she seemed to bend beneath the burden of her brown hair, yet her slim figure had the stre

n of it as something wholly natural; he found her as truly a patrician as Wayne Wayland, her father, could wish. The old man's domain was greater than that of many princes, and his power more absolute. His only daughter he spoiled as thoroughly as he ruled his part of the financial world, and wilful Mildred, once she had taken an interest in the young college man so evident

me known as the favored suitor of Wayne Wayland's daughter. He began to receive favors from comparative strangers; unexpected social privileges were granted him; his way was made easier in a hundred particulars. From every quarter delicately gratifying distinctions came to him. Without his volition he found that he had risen to an entirely different position from that which he had formerly occupied; the mere coupling of

been! How little he had realized the gulf that se

the young engineer kindly, if firmly, being too shrewd an old diplo

, "a very rich girl; one of the richest girls in this par

," Emerson had replied. "Every man has to make a s

of thing. She is bred to luxury, her friends are rich, and she doesn't know any other kind of life. Her tastes and habits and inclinations are extravagant, to put it plainly-yes, worse than extravagant; they are positively scandalous. She is about the richest girl in the c

if I were rich and Mildred were poor,

can't amuse herself, she can't be happy without the things she is accustomed to; it is in her blood and training and disposition. She would try, bless you! she would try all right-for a while-but I know her better than she knows herself. You see, I have the advantage of knowing myself and of having known her mother before her. She is

g against me-per

thi

loves

are young and may get over it b

ad queried, his own glance c

forbidding you Mildred's society, I am going to give you all you want of it. I am going to make you free at our house. I am going to see that you meet her friends and go where she goes. I want you to do the things that she does and see how she lives. The more you see of us, the better it

satisfact

t seven to-night; and

an integral part of Chicago's richer social world. The younger set had accepted him readily enough on the score of his natural good parts, while the name of Wayne Wayland had acted like magic upon the elders. Yet it had been a cruel time of probation fo

ere pregnant with truth, and after a few months, during which Emerson had made little progress in his

will have to make his own way without m

ppiness, Mildred had arranged that both of them, together, should have a talk with

both of you are beginning to realize t

erson had blazed forth. "I can ta

ng have not fitted you for the position of Mildred's husban

don't car

onsibility with it that my successor will have to be a stronger man than I am to hold it to

ble, exhausting burden. I hear of nothing else from morning till night. It gives us no pleasure, nothing but care and worry and-wrinkles. I can do without horses and motors and maid

fiantly, but, reading in the father's face the contempt that w

ld have married you anyhow, but I am indebted to him. He has shown me a lot more of your life than I knew before, and he has ma

t is

e has been ma

ask

I am told that the chances there are like

xing his own time for returning, and so i

o enhance her charm and strengthen the yearning of his heart-she seemed in the same view still further removed from his sph

of his future plans, and at the last he asked her, wi

wait ano

ion. This is not the 'third and last call.' I am not sur

your engagement in

Is your retinue a

the same. You know most of them." She mentioned a number of names, counting them off on her finge

lton C

he brook, runs on forever. He sti

ere are

f

ho

y you

?" Boyd demanded, with

Of course, father has his predilections and insists upon engineering my affairs in the same

push back the heavy draperies and gaze for a moment out into the deepeni

until I am ready, and the subject bores me." An ins

I offered to give it a

yd

forgotten fo

used to

much of your life, and my

e way?" Her eyes searched

environment. My work will take me back where you could not go-into a land you would d

lfish. I don't know which it is and-I can't express my feelings, but I have had sufficient time since you went away to think and to look into my own soul. Really I have become quite introspective. Of course, my feeling for you is just the same as it was, dear, but I-I can't-" She waved a graceful hand to indi

love you too well to take you away from i

plied, quickly. "As

tently. "You are going to be my wife," He rep

dships and all that, I listened as if it were a play or a book, but really it didn't mean anything to me or stir me as it should. I can't understand my own failure to understand. That awful country, those barbarous people, the suffering, the cold, the snow, the angry

a little unadmitted sense of disappointment

of waiting for you, but I am getting to be old; I am, indeed. Why, at times I actually have an i

ore glorious than any woma

noticed by them had become nearly dark, was suddenly flooded with

y boy! Hawkins told

ious and hearty. "Welcome home. You have been having quite a

rs!" Emers

dear, how time flie

is adventures," said Mildred.

displayed no great deg

Pizarro, laden with al

It seems to me that he

man laughed at

enty of Esquimau princes whom I might have held for ransom, but if I had

come hom

hall return i

ty seemed to increase

s are delighted to see you, and we shall certainly keep you for dinner. I am intere