n goin' out to see her yourself considerable lately, ain't you?
So mebbe she ain't needin' much other comp'ny," Miner suggested, raising
his eyes and then lowering them quickly before the other man could catch
his glance.

Ambrose hesitated. "Why, mebbe I have," he confessed slowly; "funny I
ain't ever thought of it in that light! You see I've been a-tryin' to do
what you asked and hatch up some scheme to make 'Pennyrile' understand
and like Miss Dunham better, but Em'ly and me ain't come to any
conclusion yet that's good enough, so I reckon that's why I keep on
a-goin'."

"Em'ly!" Miner sprung off his barrel top like he had been struck. "So
it's come to that, has it?" And by this time his sneer and anger were so
unmistakable that his companion, whose expression had been perfectly
frank a moment before, turned a dull red and for the first time in his
life his eyes dropped before those of his friend.

"I ain't callin' her Em'ly to her face, Miner, at least not more'n once
or twice," he answered painfully, feeling himself turn hot and cold in
the same instant, and an awful weight settle itself upon his chest. Then
a relieved light broke over him. "Mebbe now I'm thinkin' upon her as
Em'ly because some day you and she----"

"Liar!" The little man, blinded with passion, struck out somewhere into
the region of his friend's chest and, when Ambrose caught his hands and
held them, twisted and growled like a little dog in the grasp of a big
one, repeating over and over in a thick voice, "Liar, liar, you know you
want her for yourself, you know you love her, so what damn use is there
in you pretendin' before me?" until his rage had partly spent itself.

Ambrose had made no sort of answer or defence; indeed, his big hands had
seemed to cling to Miner rather than to restrain him, besides which
there was something in his appearance that would have made it hard to
continue angry with him even if you had not loved him.

"I didn't know, Miner," he said at last, hushed and frightened, "I
didn't know until you spoke it. I reckon I do love her, but now I know I
won't see or speak with her no more."

Then when Miner had banged his way out of the store the tall man,
sitting down on the deserted barrel, began to shake, and there was shame
on his face and the look of a man who has suddenly heard that the ship
on which he is sailing must go down. For several hours he remained in
his shop, sometimes walking up and down and then reseating