“I do hope you are keeping off the street this weather, Mr. Lurcher,” she said. “If you can mend shoes I have heard of a place where they will send work to you, and call for it, and you can afford to have a warmer and lighter room than this one.”
“Ah, my dear Miss! that is good of you—that is good of you,” mumbled the old man. “And why you should take such an interest in me——?”
“I feel sure that you would be interested in me, if I were poor and unhappy and you were rich and able to get about. Isn’t that so?” she said, laughing.
“Aye. Truly. And you are rich, my dear Miss?”
“Very rich, indeed. Father was one of the big cattle kings of Montana, and Prince Morrell’s Sunset Ranch, they tell me, is one of the great properties of the West.”
The old man turned to look at her with some eagerness. “That name?” he whispered. “Who did you say?”
“Why—my father, Prince Morrell.”
“Your father? Prince Morrell your father?” gasped the old man, and sat down suddenly, shaking in every limb.
The girl instantly became excited, too. She stepped quickly to him and laid her hand upon his shoulder.
“Did you ever know my father?” she asked him.