"Oh! Cousin Mary said she was going to bring him to see us some time—but—"
He enlarged upon the young engineer's industry (trained into him by Miss Wing); explained how he was busier than usual just now in view of his coming trip to Wyoming; mentioned the great Mora dam and cut-off project, on which he expected a commission under Gebhardt himself.
"And your cousin Mary, too," he concluded, in the justest way, "is an awfully busy person, you see."
"Yes, of course, I know! She does work terribly hard, doesn't she?"
After the slightest pause, the girl added: "It's such a pity she has to, don't you think so?"
On which Donald Manford dropped cleanly from Charles's mind, and he inquired with authoritative interest, artfully concealed: "How do you mean, exactly?"
"Well—I don't know—"
She looked at him, laughing a little, as if not certain how far she could say what she meant; but finding his gaze so extremely encouraging, she went on seriously:—
"Don't you think when a woman gets really wrapped up in business—and all that—she's apt to miss some of the best things of life?"
He might have laughed at the quaint deliciousness of that, to him, Charles Garrott. But he didn't.