their feelings. If we were to be married before you visit them, they could never be reconciled to me."
"I must consult my partner/' said the Captain. "He may not want me to leave at this time. The fellow is terribly unreasonable at times."
"Is that 'fellow,' as you call him, your master?" asked Mary, who was passing, on her way to the milkhouse. "He's been hanging around the house ever since sun-up, waiting for a chance to see Jean. He's depending on the three of us to keep the boarding-house, and he wants to marry Jean, to stop her wages."
"Excuse me, ladies; I must see my partner at once," said the Captain, as he hurried away.
It required much persuasive argument to secure the consent of Happy Jack to Mrs. Joseph's proposition; but he yielded at length, as men are wont to do when women to whom they are not married combine to carry a point.
The outgoing courier was to leave Oregon City at sunset, and it was necessary to wrke many letters for the overland mail, destined for Salt Lake and the few intervening points along the route.
Among the missives was one from Jean to Ashton Ashleigh, containing only a few sentences:—
"I have loved you more than life, but I have awaited tidings from you till hope is dead. I wrote a letter for your mother, but it was not sent to her because I had not heard from you. You will understand. I am deeply wounded, but I shall not die. I shall do my duty and be honest with myself, no matter what others may do or be.
"A man who styles himself Happy Jack has come among us, who wants to make me his wife. He is forming a partnership with daddie in the sawmill business; and he insinuates that you have married Le-Le. Does this explain your silence?"
A fortnight passed, and Ashton Ashleigh read this
