CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
JACK SHOULD HAVE A HIDE-OUT Kate, like the rest of the world, pretended to herself a good deal.
For instance, when she came into the mountains, she had hoped that Fred and Marion would fall in love and get married.

She felt that the arrangement would be perfectly ideal in every way.

Marion was such a dear girl, so sweet-tempered and light-hearted; just the temperament that Fred needed in a wife, to save him from becoming mentally heavy and stolid and too unemotional.

Fred was so matter-of-fact! Her eagerness to have Marion come into the mining-claim scheme had not been altogether a friendly desire for companionship, as she pretended.
Deep in the back of her mind was the matchmaker's belief that propinquity would prove a mighty factor in bringing these two together in marriage.

If they did marry, that would throw Marion's timber land with Fred's and give Fred a good bit more than he would have with his own claim alone, which was another reason why Kate had considered their marriage an ideal arrangement.
Three weeks had changed Kate's desire, however.