"Then they ought to be loyal to you. But the first impression—it hardly remains, I suppose?"
"I am not sure. They don't grow any smaller; sometimes I think they grow bigger."
"Then you are fond of them. That's constancy, and constancy is a capital test of a charm."
"But I'm never sure whether they are, as you say, loyal to me. We had once on this division a remarkable man named Hailey—a bridge engineer, and a very great one. He and I stood one night on a caisson at the Spider Water—the first caisson he put into the river—do you remember that big river you crossed on the plains——"
"Indeed! I am not likely to forget a night I spent at the Spider Water; continue."
"Hailey put in the bridge there. 'This old stream ought to be thankful to you, Hailey, for a piece of work like this,' I said to him. 'No,' he answered, quite in earnest; 'the Spider doesn't like me. It will get me some time.' So I think about these mountains. I like them, and I don't like them. Sometimes I think as Hailey thought of the Spider—and the Spider did get him."
"How serious you grow!" she exclaimed, lightly.
"The truce ends to-morrow."
"And the journey ends," she remarked, encouragingly.
"What, please, does that line mean that I see so often, 'Journeys end in lovers meeting?'"