"May I make bold to ax you to take it?" he said. "'Tis an old saying that it brings fortune."
"Then I won't accept of it," she said. "Thank you all the same; but fortune's in the wind for me already; an' I don't want it very much. I'm happy enough where I be along with my father."
"Tell me about the fortune," he said, flinging the heath away.
Thereupon she reminded him that, despite her masculine aspirations and amazing frankness, she was a woman after all.
Her eyes fell, then rose to his face again. A glorious, gentle, gentian blue they were.
"You want to know such a lot, Mr. Brendon," she said.
He was crushed instantly, and poured forth a string of apologies.
"You all do it," she answered. "I don't know what there is about me; but you chaps get so friendly—I feel as if I'd got about fifty brothers among you. But there's things you can't tell even brothers, you know."
"I'm terrible sorry. Just like my impudence to go pushing forward so. I deserve a clip on the side o' the head—same as my mother used to box my ears when I was a little one, an' hungry to ax too many questions."
Mr. Friend was awake and ready to walk homeward. Daniel accepted an invitation to tea, and accompanied them.