Mrs. Slawson brought her hands down upon her knees with a sounding slap. "There, didn't I know you'd strike on just the right idea, quicker'n, sure'n anybody else? An' you've done it!"
"But it would cost a lot of money to get that lecturer here. We might not be able to get him at all, even if we could raise the money to pay——"
"Raise nothin'—beggin' your pardon!" Martha exclaimed. "Mr. Frank Ronald is always doin' things for everybody. Why couldn't you go to him, an' tell'm what you've just told me—that you're interested in savin' Buller's soul from destruction, not to speak o' the rest of'm, an' that you know a gen'lman down to Columbia with slidin' pictures, can do it, if he got the price of his ticket, an' somethin' to boot? I betcher Mr. Frank'd have'm up in no time, an' thank you for givin'm the chance."
Katherine shrank back. "Oh, no! I'd never dare," she said. "Mr. Ronald is dreadfully unapproachable, I think. His eyes are so stern, and he is so silent. He doesn't help you out at all—just seems always to be looking you through and through, and finding you very inferior."
"Have you see'm smile?"
"No."
"Well, you go down there, an' get'm to smile for you oncet. An' if you don't swear by'm ever after, my name ain't Martha Slawson. You can take it from me, Mr. Frank is true blue, like his eyes are. D'you think, if he wasn't, Miss Claire'd ever have married'm? Not on your life! She took'm for first choice, when she'd the refusal o' the pick o' the land, an' I know what I'm talkin' about."
By the time Martha was ready to go, Miss Crewe had decided that she really must see Mr. Ronald, and find if it were possible to interest him in her village-improvement plan.
If Mrs. Slawson would take her down to the big house, she could easily walk back before dinner-time, she said.
"Say, you make a chance, an' ask about Mrs. Ronald an' the baby. You'll get'm quickest, that way. An' even if you ain't used to infants, it won't be no lie to show you're dead stuck on this one, for she's a beauty on a small scale, an' no mistake," Martha dropped as they drove along.