“Answer me,” I said. “What were you talking to him for?”
“I like him best,” she said.
“You like him better than me?”
“Yes.”
Oh, indeed! She liked him better than me, though I was at least as good a man! Hadn't I always been kind to her, and given her money and presents? And what had he done?
“He makes fun of you; he says you're always chewing things,” I said.
She did not understand that, and I explained it better; how she had a habit of putting everything in her mouth and chewing it, and how Glahn laughed at her for it. That made more impression on her than all the rest I said.
“Look here, Maggie,” I went on, “you shall be mine for always. Wouldn't you like that? I've been thinking it over. You shall go with me when I leave here; I will marry you, do you hear? and we'll go to our own country and live there. You'd like that, wouldn't you?”
And that impressed her too. Maggie grew lively and talked a lot as we walked. She only mentioned Glahn once; she asked:
“And will Glahn go with us when we go away?”