“Looked in the well! You! Such an idiot! I am surprised that you should go into that tomfoolery,” Mr. McPherson exclaimed, and Rex replied:
“No more surprised than I was when I found myself fairly at it. Had I been told a week ago that I could have done it I should have said: ‘Is thy servant a dog?’ but I did it.”
“Of course you saw nothing but yourself. You couldn’t,” Colin said, and after hesitating a moment Rex answered, “Yes, I did, I saw half of Miss Burdick’s face and one of her eyes as plainly as I see you.”
“Great guns!” and Colin sprang up and began to walk the floor. “You certainly are mad as a March hare and ought to have a doctor. Saw Miss Burdick! The thing is impossible. Look here, nobody ever saw anything except in fancy. Nannie—rest her soul—was thinking of Sandy and afraid she should see him. You were thinking of Miss Burdick and afraid you shouldn’t see her, and—”
“No, I wasn’t,” Rex interrupted. “I didn’t want to see her, did not expect to, but I did. I was doing it to please her. She was there and kept me from falling into the well. Of course I know it was an optical illusion, if there is such a thing, but I saw her, and that, with the heat, has rather upset me.”
To this Colin made no reply. He had resumed his seat and after a moment said, “I believe the theory is that you are to marry the person whose face you see?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“Then you will marry Miss Burdick, of course.”
“Perhaps so.”
“Why perhaps? Haven’t you said anything to her about a marriage?”