r?"

"Better, I think. She's asleep now. So is Nellie. I suppose George told
you she was with her."

"Yes. George had a rough passage over that West Denboro road. It's bad
enough in daylight, but on a night like this--whew! I carried away a
wheel turning into Ebenezer's yard, and if George hadn't had his team
along I don't know how I'd have got here. I'll go right in and see Mrs.
Paine."

He left us and I turned to Taylor.

"You're soaked through," I declared. "Come out to the kitchen stove.
What in the world made you drive way up to that forsaken place? It's a
good seven miles. Come out to the kitchen. Quick!"

He sat down by the stove and put his wet boots on the hearth. I mixed
him a glass of the brandy and hot water and handed him a cigar.

"Why did you do it, George?" I said. "I never would have thought of
asking such a thing."

"I know it," he said. "Course you wouldn't ask it. There's plenty in
this town that would, but you wouldn't. Maybe that's one reason I was so
glad to do it for you."

"I am almost sorry you did. It is too great a kindness altogether. I'm
afraid I shouldn't have done as much for you."

"Go on! Yes, you would. I know you."

I shook my head.

"No, you don't," I answered. "Captain Jed--your prospective
father-in-law--said the other day that he had been mistaken; he thought
he knew me, but he was beginning to find he did not."

"Did he say that? What did he mean?"

"I imagine he meant he wasn't sure whether I was the fool he had
believed me to be, or just a sharp rascal."

Taylor looked at me over the edge of his glass.

"You think that's what he meant, do you?"

"I know it."

He put the glass on the floor beside him and laid a hand on my knee.

"Ros," he said, "I don't know for sure what the Cap'n meant, though
if he thinks you're either one of the two he's the fool. But _I_ know
you--better, maybe, than you know yourself. At least I believe I know
you better than any one else in the town."

"That wouldn't be saying much."

"Wouldn't it? Well, maybe not. But whose fault is it? It's yours, the
way I look at it. Ros, I've been meaning to have a talk with you some
day; perhaps this is as good a time as any. You make a big mistake in
the way you treat Denboro and the folks in it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean just that. Your whole attitude is wrong, has been wrong ever
since you first came here to live. You never gave any of us a chance to
know you and like you--anybo