“I’m glad to be reminded of that,” he retorted, “for she promised me yesterday to marry me some time.”
“Bless my soul!”
“If she didn’t change her mind,” he added, laughingly.
“To marry you! Well, well, well!” and she stared at him so queerly, that a shade of irritation crossed his face.
“Why not?” he asked. “Don’t you think that a plain, ordinary man is good enough for your wild-flower of the Kootenai hills?” 304
“Oh, you’re not plain at all, Mr. Max Lyster,” she returned, “and I’ll go bail many a woman who is smarter than either ’Tana or me has let you know it! It ain’t the plainness—it’s the difference. And—well, well! you know you’ve been quarreling ever since you met.”
“But that is all over now,” he promised; “and haven’t you a good wish for us?”
“Indeed I have, then—a many of them, but you have surprised me. I used to think that’s how it would end; and then—well, then, a different notion got in my head. Now that it’s settled, I do hope you will be happy. Bless the child! I’ll go and tell her so this minute.”
“No,” he said, quickly, “let her and Dan have their talk out—if she will talk to him. That fever left her queer in some things, and one of them is her avoidance of Dan. She hasn’t been free and friendly with him as she used to be, and it is too bad; for he is such a good fellow, and would do anything for her.”
“Yes, he would,” assented Mrs. Huzzard.