“The farthest thing from it in this world,” said he. “I’ve been thinking over it, and I know that you were right. It’s inscrutable to me, Alice; I lack that God-given intuition that a woman has for such things. But I know that you were right, and time and events will justify you.”
“You remember that both Mr. Hammer and Mr. Lucas asked Joe and Mrs. Chase a good deal about a book-agent boarder, Curtis Morgan?” said she.
“Only in the way of incidental questioning,” he said. “Why?”
“Don’t you remember him? He was that tall, fair man who sold us the History of the World, wasn’t he?”
“Why, it is the same name,” said the colonel. “He was a man with a quick eye and a most curious jumble of fragmentary knowledge on many subjects, from roses to rattlesnakes. Yes, I remember the fellow very well, since you speak of him.”
“Yes. And he had little fair curls growing close to his 303 eyes,” said she. “It’s the same man, I’m certain of that.”
“Why, what difference does it make?” asked he.
“Not any–in particular–I suppose,” she sighed.
The colonel stroked her hair.
“Well, Alice, you’re taking this thing too much at heart, anyhow,” he said.