"That is not my affair," I remarked.
"Do you wish her harm?"
"I tell you she is no concern of mine. And if she's not a hopeless fool she'll know how to trust the gentry of County Tryon."
"You are of them, too, Jack," she said maliciously.
"I am a plain farmer and I trouble no woman."
"You trouble me," she insisted sweetly.
I laughed, not agreeably.
"You do so," she repeated. "I would you had courage to court me again."
"Do you mean courage or inclination, Claudia?"
She gave me a melting look, very sweet, and a trifle sad.