“You haven’t answered the question.”
Wyllard waved his hand. “Miss Rawlinson is your bridesmaid, and I’m Gregory’s best man. It seems to me it’s my business to do everything just as he would like it done.”
He left her a moment later, and, though she did not know how she was to explain the matter to Miss Rawlinson, who was of an independent nature, it occurred to her that he, at least, had found a rather graceful way out of the difficulty. The more she saw of this Western farmer, the more she liked him.
It was after dinner when she next met him and the wind had changed. The Scarrowmania was steaming head-on into a glorious northwest breeze. The shrouds sang; chain-guy, and stanchion, and whatever caught the wind, set up a deep-toned throbbing; and ahead ranks of little, white-topped seas rolled out of the night. A half-moon, blurred now and then by wisps of flying cloud, hung low above them, and odd spouts of spray that gleamed in the silvery light leaped up about the dipping bows. Wyllard was leaning on the rail when Agatha stopped beside him. She glanced towards the lighted windows of the smoking-room not far away.
“How is it you are not in there?” she asked, noticing that he held a cigar in his hand.
“I was,” answered Wyllard. “It’s rather full, and it seemed that they didn’t want me. They’re busy playing cards, and the stakes are rather high. In a general way, a steamboat’s smoking-room is less of a men’s lounge than a gambling club.”
“And you object to cards?”
“Oh, no!” Wyllard replied with a smile. “They merely make me tired, and when I feel I want some excitement for my money I get it another way. That one seems tame to me.”
“What sort of excitement do you like?”
The man laughed. “There are a good many that appeal to me. Once it was collecting sealskins off other people’s beaches, and there was zest enough in that, in view of the probability of the dory turning over, or a gunboat dropping on to you. Then there was a good deal of very genuine excitement to be got out of placer-mining in British Columbia, especially when there was frost in the ranges, and you had to thaw out your giant-powder. Shallow alluvial workings have a way of caving in when you least expect it of them. After all, however, I think I like the prairie farming best.”