Mrs. Dibbott's eyebrows went up, then she leaned over and patted his hand. "Whoever it is you'll knock him out. Sorry I did make a fool of myself, but it's my fixed belief that you come first with Elsie, though perhaps she doesn't know it."
Belding laughed in spite of himself. "She certainly doesn't know it yet."
"Now tell me about the iron works."
"It will be a couple of years before they are finished." Belding's brain began to throb once more. In imagination he was putting up blast furnaces.
"It will mean a good deal for the town, won't it?"
He nodded. "The biggest thing yet—St. Marys is all right now."
"And it was that dirty old Fisette who found the mine?"
Belding chuckled. "He's not old nor dirty, and was the best prospector of the lot. Yes, he found it."
"Goodness! were there many of them?"
"About twenty. They all worked in different districts and knew nothing about each other."