“In the night—rode down to the railroad. I remember it all. But tell me, where did you go then, and what happened to you? How did you escape the search I made for you all over the world?”
“That’s my story! I’ll tell it to you some day—how I dishwashed and cooked on a ranch for a living, peddled corsets, and worked in a factory—it’s a long yarn. Some of it is in the play; I told Ned the amusing things. But he has fixed it up a whole lot—I don’t know myself!”
“It must have been hard for a girl.”
“It was, but I am not sorry. It gave you a chance to work the mine, for one thing.”
There was a pause, and then Brainard rose to leave, saying:
“Well, Miss White—”
“Just plain Melody, please! I like the name—don’t you?”
“It means a good deal to me, as I told you.”
The girl blushed, remembering what Brainard had said about his unknown mistress, and drawled:
“But you didn’t like my taking it a little bit.”