ttle
acknowledgment. Of course I knew that she was handin' me one for my
fool break; but she did it in cold blood, an' if it hadn't been for her
bein' so stewed up in trouble, I'd have made her furnish some
specifications to back up that remark. Twice is a good many, but I let
it go.

She sat lost in study for a while, an' then said, mostly to herself, "I
reckon I might as well take him"--my heart popped up in my mouth till I
liked to have gagged, but she went on--"he's honest an' kind, an' he's
been true a long time to his first love. I hope he'll stay true to her
after we're married; I know I'll stay true to mine"--then I knew she
meant that fool Englishman. "Anyway, father has been good to me," she
continued, "an' I don't set enough store by my own life to risk
spoilin' his."

"I suppose that mis-shapen stray from the other side is twice the man I
am, too," sez I. She put her hand on mine an' sez in a tired voice,
"Ah, Happy, you've been my staff so far through the valley, don't you
slip out from under me too"; so I swallered hard a couple o' times an'
let it go.

She sat still a long while, lookin' out the window an' up to the of
gray mountains; and as I watched her with her lips tremblin, an' her
eyes misty, with courage winnin' a battle over pain, I saw the woman
lines of her face steal forth an' bury the last traces o' girlhood.
After a time she sez softly, "Poor ol' Dick, I wonder how it happened";
but never one tear got by her eyelids--never one single tear.

From that on it was plain sailin'. Barbie didn't put up any more fight
to either of 'em. She told 'em open an' fair that she would never in
the world have consented if she had thought that Dick was still alive;
but if they was willin' to take what part of her heart was left why
they was welcome to it. Jabez was pleased at any kind of a compromise
'at would give him his own way, an' Clarence, poor dear, wasn't a proud
lot. The flesh-pots of Egypt was about all the arguments needed to win
his vote, confound him. I used to give him some sneerin' glances what
would 'a' put fight into the heart of a ring-dove; but he was resigned
an' submissive; so 'at I had to swaller my tongue when I saw him
comin', for fear I might tell him my opinion of him an' then stamp his
life out for not bein' insulted.

The first of November was selected for the weddin' day; an' Jabez told
'em 'at his present would be a trip to Europe an' a half interest in
the ranch. Clarence