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gravely. At her questioning look, he added, “Because you are an unusual and winsome person. If you are like him, he must have been an unusual and winsome person.”
    Kendra felt a start of pleasure. Back home, the Logans thought of her father as the family disgrace. Before she could answer they heard footsteps in the hall and Eva’s voice exclaiming,
    “For pity’s sake, Mrs. Riggs, who do you suppose tracked in all this mud?”
    “That’s my mother,” Kendra said under her breath.
    Ted gave a long slow shrug. Hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, he sauntered into the hall. Kendra was observing that he did nothing in a hurry. She heard him say,
    “I’m afraid I’m the culprit, Mrs. Taine.”
    With respectful courtesy he told her who he was, apologized for his carelessness, and bowed himself out. Later that day Eva remarked that Ted Parks seemed surprisingly well bred for a man in his position.

4
    T HAT EVENING, WHEN KENDRA said she wanted to cook, Eva heard her with glad surprise. Eva regarded cooking as a disagreeable duty. That anybody should want to cook astonished her. She was also astonished that Kendra had a talent for it. Kendra’s utter lack of skill at handicrafts, which Eva did so well, had led her to fear that Kendra had no talents at all.
    “Why Kendra,” she exclaimed, “can you cook a whole meal? All by yourself?”
    Kendra said she could, all by herself. “When you go to buy calico,” she continued, “let me go with you, for groceries.”
    “My dear,” Eva said fervently, “I shall be delighted.”
    Overhearing them, Alex smiled with more warmth than Kendra knew he possessed. “You are a thoughtful young woman, Kendra,” he said. Kendra guessed that with all Eva’s other gifts for bringing civilization to the wilds, that dreadful meal of boiled beef and cabbage was typical of what she put on table.
    The next day was foggy and cold. But Eva wanted to start her shopping, so Alex sent up the horses, and two army officers as escorts. The four of them rode down to Montgomery Street and went into the trading post of Chase and Fenway.
    Both partners came forward in welcome. They made an odd contrast: Mr. Chase brisk and stocky and good-natured, Mr. Fenway tall and thin and languid, with a mournful look as if he were always hearing sad music. Eva was so charming that Mr. Chase blushed with pleasure and even Mr. Fenway’s dismal face relaxed in a smile. Opening a side door Mr. Chase called, “Parks! Come take care of these ladies!” Ted came out and said he would be happy to do so.
    Kendra went with him into the storeroom and he showed her around. She did not buy much, for she had the foodstuffs Ted had brought her the day before, but now she knew what she could count on. She went home and prepared the dinner she had planned yesterday: a beef stew with onions, and for dessert a dried apple pie, made as Ted had suggested, with raisins soaked in wine and added to the pie filling.
    Alex ate dinner with astonished relish. Afterward he said, almost respectfully, that he would like to bring some of his army friends to dinner now and then. Kendra said of course, and Eva said they would be welcome. After this, he invited his friends often, and as they discovered Kendra’s menus and Eva’s charm they told him he was the luckiest man in town.
    The mornings were foggy, the afternoons windy and sharp. With army escorts Kendra and Eva rode down to Montgomery Street nearly every day. They did much of their shopping at Chase and Fenway’s. Eva liked the store, because Ted was so obliging, and because Mr. Fenway saw to it that the place was swept and dusted and the hinges did not squeak.
    The building had two main rooms, the front room for trade and the back for storage, and a smaller room used as an office. Across the front room was the counter, and at one side a stove around which men with time on their hands smoked and yarned.
    In the storeroom the walls were lined with over-full shelves, and the