“She was a beauty, and no mistake,” he said, enthusiastically.
“A beauty, was she?” rejoined Kate, her eyes flashing fire.
“She was, as sure as you live,” replied Ben, who failed to see that he was heaping coals of fire upon her inflammable nature. “She had the prettiest face and the most perfect form I ever saw in any woman.”
“And you admire her, do you?” asked Kate, her hands working convulsively.
“Yes, yes; indeed I do admire her,” answered Ben, honestly.
That was more than the high-spirited woman before him could stand. With eyes glistening like a panther’s, she made a spring toward the astonished Hogan, and seizing him by the hair, pulled and mauled him about in a very frenzy of rage. In vain he tried to find out what he had done to call forth such an outburst. The infuriated woman wasted no time in answering questions, but taught Ben a lesson which he probably will never forget. That lesson was not to praise one woman before another.
So it will be seen that although Ben made a jolly thing out of the wedding, he was himself a good deal taken in before the adventure was over.