Mr. Randolph owned a large ranch in Lake County which was managed by an agent. A mile distant from the farm-house in which the agent lived with the “hands” was a cottage, built several years since at Nina’s request. As Lake County was then difficult of access, Mr. Randolph seldom visited his ranch, his wife never; but once a year Nina took a party of girl friends to the cottage, usually in mid-summer. This year she went alone. Immediately after Thorpe’s departure she told her father of the conditional engagement into which she had entered.

“And I wish to spend this year alone,” she added. “Not only because I want to get away from my mother, but because I believe that nothing will help me more than entire change of associations. And solitude has no terrors for me. I simply cannot go on in the old routine. I am bored to death with the meaninglessness of it. That has come suddenly: probably because I have come to want so much more.”

“But wouldn’t you rather travel, Nina?” Mr. Randolph was deeply anxious; he hardly knew whether to approve her plan or not. A year’s solitude would drive him to madness.

“No, I want to live with myself. If I rushed from one distraction to another I should not feel sure of myself at the end. I have thought and thought; and, besides, I want to see and live Europe with Dudley Thorpe alone. I feel positive that my plan is the right one. Only keep my mother away.”

“I will tell her plainly that if she follows you, I’ll shut her up in the Home of the Inebriates; and this time I’ll keep my word. What excuse shall you give people?”

“You can tell them of my engagement, and say that as we have agreed it shall last a year, I have my own reasons for spending the interval by myself. Their comments mean nothing to me.”

“Shall you see no one?”

“Molly will come occasionally, and you,—no one else. I shall fish and hunt and sail and ride and read and study music. Perhaps you will send me a little piano?”

“Of course I will.”

“I shall live out of doors mostly. I love that sort of life better than any; I like trees better than most people.”

“Very well. If you change your mind, you have only to return. I will send to New York for all the new books and music. Cochrane will go ahead and put things in order. I will also send Atkins to look after the horses; and he and his wife will sleep in the house and look after you generally. I hope to God the experiment will prove a success. I think you are wise not to marry until the fight is over.”