“You don't like him?” questioned the Girl.
“I do!” declared the Harvester. “I like him immensely. There is not a fine, manly good-looking feature about him that I have missed. I don't fail to do him justice on every point.”
“I'm so glad! Then you will want him to remain.”
“Here?” asked the Harvester with a light, hot breath.
“In Onabasha! Doctor Carey has offered him the place of chief assistant at the hospital. There is a good salary and the chance of taking up the doctor's work as he grows older. It means plenty to do at once, healthful atmosphere, congenial society——everything to a young man. He only had a call once in a while in Chicago, often among people who received more than they paid, like me, and he was very lonely. I think it would be great for him.”
“And for you, Ruth?”
“It doesn't make the least difference to me; but for his sake, because I think so much of him, I would like to see him have the place.”
“You still think so much of him, Ruth?”
“More, if possible,” said the Girl. “Added to all I owed him before, he has come here and worked for days to save me, and it wasn't his fault that it took a bigger man. Nothing alters the fact that he did all he could, most graciously and gladly.”
“What do you mean, Ruth?” stammered the Harvester.