"I've lived so long in the open, in primitive conditions," Scarlett, unmindful of her interruption, went on, "I always blurt out whatever pops into my mind. Well, there's precedent. In Eden, Adam must have called a spade a spade."
"Ah, my young friend, but there's no record of his having called Eve a spade," observed Maclane, with a twinkle in his eye.
"Faith, I'll drop the spade, then," laughed the Irishman, "if she'll let me call her Eve!"
"Tell him," laughed Miss Durant, with heightened color, "that he goes too far."
"Tell her I'd go farther—to any lengths, for her, so long as it didn't take me from her side."
"Tell him he's kissed the blarney-stone."
"Tell her I only practiced on it to keep my hand in till she should come."
"How dare you!" cried Evelyn, feeling that she ought to be very angry.
"Come, come, my children, peace," prescribed Maclane. "Miss Durant, I am here as a petitioner. One of my dear Indians, in fact the sister-in-law of Chilkat Jo, has a baby——"
"Velly damfine Clistian baby!" interpolated the trader, who was sitting on the step near by, whittling out a toy canoe.