She laughed—Nancy again!
“There seems to be no end of men in England who can pay neat compliments to a woman,” she said. “But you’re not an Englishman, Mr. Power. Aren’t you a fellow-countryman of mine?”
“Yes.”
“How jolly! People never guess it, but I’m an American; though I can never be President, even if we women get a vote, because I was born in London. But my parents hail from the Silver State.”
“Where more gold is produced than in any other state of the Union.”
“Then you know Colorado?”
“Yes. Better than that, I knew your mother many years ago, before her marriage.”
“You knew my mother—in Colorado—on the ranch! Well!” She turned rapidly to her hostess. “Thank you ever so much for inviting me here today. I’ll work like a slave for your bazaar. Here is the man I’ve been aching to meet ever since I was able to talk. Please don’t think me rude if I monopolize him all the afternoon. I’m going to take him off to that nice shady seat under the copper beech, and question him until he cries for mercy.... Yes, please. Tea, with sugar and milk, and lots of bread and butter, piled high with Devonshire cream and jam—all the good things! Why, you’re a veritable fairy princess. Mr. Power met my mother when she was a girl!... Come along, Mr. Power! No wonder I was inclined to grab you in that corridor. Oh, had I but guessed! I’ll never, never distrust intuition again.”
“To begin with,” said Power, as he walked with her across the springy turf with a laden tray in his hands, “in what way did intuition prompt you?”
“I don’t mind telling you at once. I feel I can talk to you as though we had known each other always. I said you rather startled me; but that was just a polite way of saying what I didn’t exactly mean. You were examining a picture, and you turned unexpectedly and looked at me. There was an expression in your eyes that gave me a sort of shock, one of those emotional thrills which cannot be described in words. You might have been gazing at the ghost of someone very dear to you. Ah, forgive me if my tongue runs away with me, but I’m really excited. Of course, I understand now. You took me for my mother. And I am like her, am I not?”