He hesitated a second, looked from one to the other and said:
“We got a date tonight, Millie. Will you be ready ’bout seven?”
This casual taking it for granted that he could do what he had done and not suffer her resentment stirred Millie into cold anger, but she came of a stock trained not to exhibit emotion and merely smiled as she replied:
“You must have got your nights mixed, Curly. Because tonight I’ve got an engagement with Mr. Marling.”
Curly’s face fell almost comically. He stared from her to the grinning Oklahoma Kid and opened his mouth as though to protest. Then he swallowed, turned away and walked toward the chutes.
“What time tonight, little one?” Marling asked.
He was staggered by her answer and the flash of her eyes that accompanied it.
“Not any time,” she said. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“Next contestant,” bellowed Foghorn McNamara, “is Miss Millie Wayne!”
She sprang into her saddle and was off toward the stand, while Marling, who understood some kinds of women very well but her kind not at all, gazed open-mouthed after her. Turning, he also tramped toward the chutes and found Curly Bratton, his face harshly set, standing a little apart from the other cowboys, waiting.