"Nixie!" he answered, in swift negation. "Little Willie don't want to tackle that delicate job. I'm subtle, but not so subtle as that. Alice Heath knows all we know and more, and you can bet they've talked the whole thing over."
"But they may not realize the position of the Haneys."
"They may not; but I suspect they think they can carry any connection they choose to make, and I mostly think they can—ten generations of Quaker ancestry—"
"But the people there don't know their ancestry."
"Well, go talk to them. I abdicate. Besides, I like the Haneys."
Mrs. Crego now laid her joker on the table. "Here's the point. That girl is taken with Ben—it's all her plan."
Congdon started. "Sh! Don't say that out loud, Nell. That little wife is true as steel."
"I don't care. My prophetic soul—"
Lee put in. "Prophetic pollywogs! Why, Helen, the girl is as simple and straightforward as a boy of twelve."
"She seems that way, but I could see she was wonderfully attracted by Ben and his singing that night here."