“I see your point,” replied Kathleen, “but I also see that just there you allow for all sorts of prejudice to enter and for the indulgence in unfair argument and special pleading. But there, we are finished,” she said, “and you do not wish to discuss this just now.”
“Some time, Miss Gwynne, we shall have this out, and I have some literature on the subject that I should like to give you.”
“And so have I,” cried the girl, with a smile that rendered Mr. Romayne for some moments quite incapable of consecutive thought. “And now shall we look up the others?”
At the dump they found Joe and Sam rolling the logs, which during the winter had been piled high upon the bank, down the steep declivity or “dump” into the stream below. Mrs. Waring-Gaunt and Nora were seated on a log beside them engaged in talk.
“May I inquire if you are bossing the job as usual?” said Mr. Romayne, after he had watched the operation for a few moments.
“Oh, no, there's no bossing going on to-day. But,” said the girl, “I rather think the boys like to have me around.”
“I don't wonder,” said Mr. Romayne, enthusiastically.
“Are you making fun of me, Mr. Romayne?” said the girl, her face indicating that she was prepared for battle.
“God forbid,” replied Mr. Romayne, fervently.
“Not a bit of it, Nora dear,” said his sister. “He is simply consumed with envy. He has just come from a country, you know, where only the men do things; I mean things that really count. And it makes him furiously jealous to see a young woman calmly doing things that he knows quite well he could not attempt to do.”