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Now that it was all explained, it seeton de Laney to be

ridiculously simple He wondered how he could have been so blind For

the moment, however, all other emotions were sed up in intense

mortification over the density he had displayed, and the ridiculous

light in which he must have appeared to all the actors in the comedy

His companion perceived this, and kindly hastened to relieve it

"You're wondering how it all happened," said he, "but you don't want to

ask about it I' to tell you the story of your life You see,

Bert and I knew the Fays very well in Boston, and we knew also that

they were out here in the Hills That's what tickled us so when you

said you were co out to this very place You know yourself, Ben,

that you were pretty green when you were in New York--you ot over it so nicely since--and it struck us, after

you talked so much about the 'Wild West,' that it would be a shaet so, and to

see to it that you had a tiuess you had it He wrote

about that horse he sprung on you, and the tiht we had done pretty well, especially