To my
annoyance, Ajax introduced the ridiculous Dinah, the perfidious
creature of his fancy. Ajax was in his salad days, but he ought to
have known, even then, that if you want to interest a maid in a man,
tell her that the man has suffered at the hands of another maid.
Hetty's blue eyes sparkled, her dimpled cheeks glowed with sympathy
and indignation.
"Schoolfellow o' yours, was he? Well--I may make that feller foreman
one o' these days," said Silas, with a fond, foolish glance at his
daughter. Hetty could do what she pleased with her sire--and knew it.
"Poppa," said Miss Hetty, "you're all sorts of a darling, and I must
kiss you."
Then she and Ajax strolled on to the verandah, and I found myself
alone with my host. He said meaningly: "Wilkins has had a tough row to
hoe--eh? But he's a perfect gentleman, straight, sober, and a worker.
I've been looking for a man that is a man to run things here, now that
I'm getting a bit stiff in the joints. Hetty likes him first-rate
too."
All this in an interrogatory tone. Of course, it was easy to fill the
_lacunae_ in the text. Silas Upham adored his daughter and his
ranch.
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