“On the plains men help clean up after supper, but I expect you had enough at the camp,” she said to Kit. “Your sort’s fastidious.”
“Do you know my sort?” Kit inquired.
“Oh, yes. In the Old Country I knew one or two like you. The stamp is plain, but in Manitoba it’s not admired.”
Kit was puzzled. He wondered whether Miss Grey was antagonistic to the stamp she thought he wore or to him himself. To see Mrs. Austin arrive was some relief.
“Oh, well,” he said. “I have cleaned supper plates, and my notion is, where food must be served and the tables cleared at high speed, a man can beat a very active woman. Would you like to try?”
“Mrs. Austin’s plates are thin, and in Canada crockery is expensive. The food men cook at construction camps only construction gangs can eat.”
“Yet you declare I’m fastidious!”
“I expect you were hungry. A man’s appetite is remarkable,” Miss Grey rejoined.
“You must not dispute, and Mr. Carson is going to play for us,” said Mrs. Austin, and Kit tuned his violin.
At ten o’clock Miss Grey stated firmly that she and Alison must go, and Kit turned to Austin.