ll, what's all your news?" asked
Talbot, as if desirous to get away from the question of his men.

"I don't know that there is much, except I've been having a good time.
You've looked after my ground and seen to the workings, haven't you?
Thanks, I knew you would, and so I felt I could stay down town a little:
you're a better hand at managing men than I am, any way,--women too, for
that matter; do you know that you impressed Katrine awfully? She has
talked about you to me--you are so good-looking, so distinguished, she
wants to know whether you are a Count or a Prince in disguise, and all
sorts of things."

Talbot smiled. "It is extremely kind of her," he said quietly.

"Oh, I know she's not the kind of girl you admire," said Stephen, in
rather a nettled tone. "You wouldn't look at a saloon-keeper's daughter
simply because she _is_ a saloon-keeper's daughter; you like a girl in
your own rank, all grace and dignity and good manners, and awfully
clever and intellectual, and gifted and educated, and all that."

Talbot merely laughed and remained silent, a habit he had which
successfully baffled questions, innuendoes, and suppositions alike.

"And any way your passions are engaged somehow, somewhere."

"How do you know that?" asked Talbot, with a hardening of his mouth.

"Know it! why, otherwise you could not lead this dog's life as you do,
and you could not be indifferent to a beautiful girl like Katrine,--for
she is beautiful, she's not 'pretty' or 'nice,' but she's downright
beautiful," returned Stephen, emphasising his remarks by striking the
table.

Talbot said nothing, but put more wood in the stove in silence.

"Your supper is ready now; if you are famished, as you said, you'd
better have it, and discuss Miss Poniatovsky afterwards," he remarked.

Stephen turned to the table. "Won't you have something too?" he said.

Talbot shook his head. "No, thanks; I'm not hungry."

"You ascetic creature, you never are," replied Stephen, as he began to
carve into the cold bacon.

"Well, you know how I detest her surroundings," he began again after a
few minutes, "and drinking, and saloons, and almost everything she does,
but then I can't help liking her. She's so different from any girl I've
ever seen. She attracts me, she holds my thoughts so, and if I could get
her to give up all that, if I could alter her views--"

"You would be doing away with that difference from others that is the
basis of your attraction," p