"He does. He's got a mighty high opinion of her and says she's a burning light and a lesson to all the women. He don't hide his feelings. He was figuring up her age a bit backalong."
Enoch laughed.
"Ah! But you can't have it both ways, as we said just now. Master Joe's always crying out about being an old man, but he don't want to feel an old man, or look an old man where my Melinda's concerned. I read Joe like a book I may tell you. He often thinks what a fine thing it would be to wed Melinda; but he knows he couldn't make a servant of her, like he does of his daughter."
"He's always been uncommon friendly to me," said Lawrence.
"Long may he continue so. You're a good man at your job I doubt not, and he knows it. But—well, enough said."
Maynard sat another hour with the old man and the talk drifted to fox-hunting.
When Melinda returned, she found her father in the best of tempers and the tea things cleared away and washed up.
"My!" she exclaimed. "What a husband you'll make some of these days, Mr. Maynard!"
"And he's going to come again," said Enoch. "He's promised. We'll set the world right between us afore we've done—him and me. And next time you go up over to Falcon Farm, you've got to take the man a book. I can't put my hand on it for the minute; but he's got to read it."
"You let what my father says go in at one ear and out at the other," warned Melinda. "He's a dangerous old man and we all know it."