He jingled the change in his pocket.
“No trouble so far as I’m concerned,” he said. “She’s a good girl and a clever girl and I want her to have every chance that belongs to her. I am thinking of her, not of myself.... Now what are you shaking your head about? Don’t you believe me?”
Reliance smiled.
“It is a little bit hard for me to believe you aren’t thinkin’ of yourself some, Foster,” she said.
“What do you mean by that?” indignantly. “Where do I come in on the deal? Do you suppose I want to get rid of her? She’s mine now and I want her to stay mine. Don’t talk like a fool, woman.”
Miss Clark was still smiling. “The surest way to get anything out of you, Foster,” she observed, “is to stir you up. I learned that long ago.”
“Is that so? Well, what do you think you’ve got out of me now? I’ve told you the truth and nothing else.”
“There, there! I don’t doubt a word you’ve told me. Of course you want Esther to be yours and stay yours. I don’t blame you for that. And the surest and quickest way to bring that around is to put her where there won’t be so many reminders of the times when she was somebody else’s. I should probably do the same thing, if I were you.”
“Look here, Reliance!... Oh, well! what’s the use? I thought you had more sense. You’re jealous, that’s what ails you.”
“Am I? Well, I guess I am, a little.”