"Mighty nigh," the Californian admitted, answering Hugh's quiet glance, while his heart praised the daughter's failure to credit him with his share in the achievement, that being a thing still in progress, whose design he had not fully revealed. The omission seemed to him most maidenly and daughterly. He spoke on, to the two ladies:
"There's a thing or two more——"
"Oh, I'll pay that two hundred dollars!" cried Ramsey.
In animated approval her mother nodded to both.
"Not if the court knows itself," said the modest man, with so winsome a smile that every one noticed how blue were his eyes. "I can trump that," he added, musingly.
"What's the other thing? You said a thing or two," asked Ramsey.
"Her wages, ain't it, for eleven years?"
"Ho, ho!" laughed madame in amiable scorn, while——
"Paid!" cried Ramsey. "Mrs. Gilmore's always paid her!"
"Knowin' she was a runaway? and who' from?"