"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa and you are the only gentlemen he met in America. But now we come to Mr. Wiggins."
"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't he tried his luck?"
"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to bring himself to the scratch."
She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp this.
"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?"
Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head.
"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been afraid that you were seriously interested in him!"
"That is like Cecilia. She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity.
"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment? While we sit here, he may be the sixth man! There's my friend, the eminent thinker from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep."
"That's all true; and you've got to fix it."