“How did you know I was here? Who told you?” she said impetuously.
“Nobody! never was so surprised in my life! When you opened that door just now you might have knocked me down with a feather.” Yet he spoke lazily, with an amused face, and looked at her without changing his position.
“But you MUST have known SOMETHING! It was no mere accident,” she went on vehemently, glancing around the room.
“That's where you slip up, Nell,” said Hamlin imperturbably. “It WAS an accident and a bad one. My horse lamed himself coming down the grade. I sighted the nearest shanty, where I thought I might get another horse. It happened to be this.” For the first time he changed his attitude, and leaned back contemplatively in his chair.
She came towards him quickly. “You didn't use to lie, Jack,” she said hesitatingly.
“Couldn't afford it in my business,—and can't now,” said Jack cheerfully. “But,” he added curiously, as if recognizing something in his companion's agitation, and lifting his brown lashes to her, the window, and the ceiling, “what's all this about? What's your little game here?”
“I'm married,” she said, with nervous intensity,—“married, and this is my husband's house!”
“Not married straight out!—regularly fixed?”
“Yes,” she said hurriedly.
“One of the boys? Don't remember any Rylands. SPELTER used to be very sweet on you,—but Spelter mightn't have been his real name?”