"Of course I do."
"Didn't it strike you that he acted queerly then?"
"What do you mean? I don't understand you. I noticed nothing."
"I did. I saw how he watched Edith, and I made up my mind that he was in love with her! Since then I've found out it was so!"
"Why, Jim, I never dreamed of such a thing. He hasn't been to our house since to see her."
"Just because he is in love! I've met him in the woods a dozen times since, and by the way in which he questioned me, I'd been a downright fool if I hadn't understood him."
This avowal seemed to trouble the father, as he bent his head; and, for a while, nothing further was said. But Jim, who had little reverence for sentiment or romance, added, in a meaning voice:
"That isn't all, father."
"What else have you to tell?"
"That Edith loves him!"