Margaret Cameron and Jessie Leach Rector

“ Tony admitted.
"Any place is attractive with the man you love—if you love him enough." Again that keen glance. "But it's very hard to come into it unprepared. I mean to say, I've grown up out here and I'm used to it; but I can see, as the men don't, how hard it is for a woman who comes out with illusions about a cozy little home and pretty things about."
"But why? Are there no cozy little homes?" Tony asked, rather stiffly.
"They may be little—but it's difficult to be cozy in a corrugated iron house, without a growing thing in sight, oil-cloth on the floors, wooden chairs—and no cushions. ”

“ In his tall, loosely built body, his tanned skin and unconventional dress, his infectious smile and unconscious ease of manner, she saw merely one more of that vast army of adventurers attracted to the oil-fields—soldiers of fortune, socially eligible only when ripened by age and flavored by success, from whom Antoinette must be protected at any cost. ”

“ Then it became his Blue Bird, which, from the time Tony was three years old, he pursued and tried to cage for her until, as the years passed, both father and daughter saw in its promise the fulfilment of happiness and high reward. But to Mrs. Dean, in the throes of social evolution, it symbolized only a reversion to type; and even when the long struggle that had begun in the oil -fields of West Virginia was finally ended, with Barbara Ventris's help, in the gold-fields of West Australia, to Tony's mother the pink dress still loomed—an outraged convention. ”

“ But he's too busy—and too much man—to understand what life up-country means to a girl accustomed to softness and luxury. It isn't that he wouldn't care. He just doesn't understand. And it is a shock if one isn't prepared for it."
This was only the first of several such conversations, and from slightly resenting the other girl's apparent assumption that it was necessary to interpret Bob to her, or that his presence would not more than compensate for anything she might sacrifice to join him, Tony presently found herself fighting once more against doubt and suspicion. ”

“ Tony, with another negative telegram from McEwen in her hand, heard her mother's decree without visible emotion, accorded it a dull acquiescence, and shut herself into her own room, where she remained, asking only to be left alone.
Late in the afternoon of the second day, responding to a light tap, which she supposed to announce the maid with towels, she unlocked her door, and drew herself up in startled indignation when Barbara stepped into the room.
"I know," the English girl said. "They told me I couldn't see you—but I must! Tony, what is it? Why are you doing this? It's cruel!" ”

“ Mary's first premonition of this blemish came when Dean casually remarked, on the morning of the great day:
"By the way, I asked young McEwen to come in to-night."
"McEwen?" his wife repeated. "What McEwen?"
"Robert H.—Joe McEwen's nephew —down here looking up some oil titles for the old man."
"Fergus! He must be impossible!"
"Not a bit of it!" he assured her. "He's a mighty good-looking, presentable young chap. You'll like him. He's all right." ”

“ IT'S PINK!"
"He's been in charge of a mine out in West Australia for two years, and he's going back. He's mined in Montana and Mexico, and all sorts of fascinating places—and he tells such wonderful stories about them! Daddy, why don't you buy some mines?"
"I've been asking myself why I didn't give away those I have," Dean replied, with a whimsical gleam. "The sun never sets on my mineral possessions."
"Doesn't it? Why don't we ever go to see them? Mother, I've asked Mr. McEwen to tea, and then we're going out on the river."
"Antoinette!" Mrs. Dean put aside her paper. ”

“ Illustration: "OH, FERGUS, WHY DID YOU PUT THAT NOTION INTO HICK HEAD?"
More than once, as she grew older, Tony rebelled against her mother's decrees, but her father's counsel never varied.
"It's a game your mother knows, chick," he would say. "You see, everything's a game. But you must know all the rules before you can break any of them intelligently."
At twelve, her emotions quickened by her keen imagination, Antoinette was to be confirmed, and again Dean made his plea to his wife.
"This seems to be quite an event," he suggested. "Why can't we have the pink dress this time?" ”

“ Her weak inquiry about luggage was met by the assurance that everything was arranged, and her discovery that all but the steamer-trunks had gone on with the ship was made only when her normal interests were beginning to revive, stimulated by breathing the same air that blew over Government House. When Dean good-naturedly explained that they had conceived themselves birds of passage, to whom the life was more than meat and the body than raiment, she retorted:
"Oh, you may jeer! But knowing oneself well dressed is as comforting as the confidence of a certain faith! ”

“ From first to last, Antoinette must learn to conform.
The pink dress, however, first became an issue the day before the child's third birthday, when Dean casually remarked:
"By the way, I couldn't play with Tony last night, and I promised that if she'd be good she should have a pink dress for her party to-morrow. Better get it to-day."
"A pink dress!" his wife echoed. "Absurd! Babies never wear pink." ”

“ Dean's pregnant comment. "And I notice she doesn't wear mourning."
Illustration: "NO, IT ISN'T!" TONY FLUNG BACK FROM THE DOORWAY. "HOW CAN YOU BE SO UNJUST?"
"Oh, mother dear, do be fair!" Tony begged; but after forty-eight hours she began to be aware of a change in her own mental attitude. Although Barbara's cordial manner never lapsed, it seemed to Tony that she was deliberately picturing life in West Australia in somber colors, and the American girl could draw upon no knowledge with which to disprove the arid picture.
"I wonder if you know what life is in the gold country?" ”

“ So, disregarding instructions, he told her about the threatened strike and gave her Bob's letter to him, which at first afforded her the greatest relief. Then, as Barbara met her anxious inquiries about conditions at the mine with smiling assurance, minimizing the danger and reiterating that Bob would surely be down in a day or two, and still he did not come, her mother's interpretation of the situation began to be the only one Tony could see, and even had its effect upon Dean. ”

“ Rides, rows—does all the things a man can do, and is a beauty besides. She and Jack will be married before you come out—December's the month they've set, I believe—and the four of us will have bully good times together." To all of which Mrs. Dean listened with the hope that in these intimate revelations of his life McEwen might unconsciously place in her hands a weapon of defense.
Illustration: YOU KNOW THAT NOBODY COUNTS—EXCEPT JUST YOU
It was only after he had gone that Tony began to be conscious of her mother's fixed opposition to her engagement ”

“ Dean was frankly bored, and while Tony made a brave effort to simulate interest in the things about her, hour by hour her father saw the constraint in which she held herself increase, and recognized as a part of himself her eagerness to meet the situation and have her fears confuted or affirmed without delay. Therefore he made inquiries of transportation agents, and when he learned that by going directly to Adelaide by rail they could connect with a steamer due in Perth a week ahead of their schedule, Tony hailed the suggestion with the first spontaneous enthusiasm she had shown, and Mrs. ”

“ There are times when a man simply has to stay with his job, and this is one of the times." But she wondered why he did not show her Bob's letter.
As day followed day, however, punctuated for Tony only by telegrams from McEwen, postponing his arrival and ignoring her intimation that Mohammed had solved a similar situation, Dean saw the burden of uncertainty growing too heavy for her. ”

“ And now we have only traveling-clothes!"
"Then go out and buy what you need—and the eleventh trunk to put it in," he suggested, and she scoffed:
"Buy what we need—here? A man always thinks he's found the solution when he's willing to spend money!" ”