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XXXIII

LOVE FINDS A WAY

OU needn't select any lands for me, Captain/said Mrs. Benson. "I have decided to go to Portland to-morrow with the team that's going down for supplies. I shall not return. But my daughter will remain and take a claim. She has decided to turn rancher, but I do not like the life."

"Is n*t this a rather sudden change in your programme, Mrs. Benson?"

"Not at all. I didn't intend to remain when I came here. I wouldn't have come any farther than Oregon City, but I wanted to get a view of the future home of Daphne; and now, as she has chosen for herself and/ has a fair prospect of happiness ahead, I am ready to look out for myself. I shall stop awhile in Portland, and be ready to take the next steamer for San Francisco. I will go to New York by way of the Isthmus, and will spend the evening of my days in Paris or London."

"I 'm sure I wish you well, Mrs. Benson."

"Thank you, Captain. My heart is too full for words! I know you will always be a friend to my dear daughter."

"You surely do not mean to go where you can never see your daughter again!"

"Yes, Captain. Do you recall that tall and bronzed and handsome man of whom you bought the buffalo robe you gave to your wife a short time before her death?"

"You mean Donald McPherson?"

"Yes, sir. The fates have settled it. He is to be my husband, and Daphne and I must part."

"You have my best wishes for success and happiness," said the Captain, earnestly, as he offered his hand.

"There is some peculiar mystery about all th