her.

"Oh, Fred! Well, I'd have you know that I offered to take Fred in with
me, but he wouldn't see it. I'd like the folks over here to know that;
but I couldn't do anything with him. He camped on one of our Mexican
mines so long that he is afraid of cities,--isn't city-broke,--and
seemed relieved when I suggested that he take the farm. It's no great
shakes of a farm as farms go, but he's one of these plodding chaps who
like a hard job. He came back and took a look around and said it was
back to the soil for him! So there was the farm, just waiting for
somebody to tackle it. I haven't seen him for some time,--I'm terribly
busy,--but I dare say he's out there, an earnest young husbandman
anxious to become one of these prosperous farmers who push the price of
bread out of sight and cry to have the tariff taken off champagne. You
don't happen to know Fred?"

"I've met your brother," said Phil with reserve.

"Well, I suppose we Montgomery folks are all acquainted without being
introduced. Lots of 'em moving to Indianapolis; I'm thinking of
organizing a club over there to keep the Montgomery people together--an
annual dinner, say; and that sort of thing. Do you know, it's rather
nice of you to be talking to me in this friendly, neighborly way; it
really is."

As Phil seemed not to see at once wherein the particular kindness of it
lay, he smiled and continued:--

"Our families haven't been so friendly, you know. Pardon me!"

Phil, seeing now what he meant, colored deeply, and glancing out of the
window was rewarded by a glimpse of Amzi's back. He had just concluded
an observation and was turning into the bank.

"You will pardon me, won't you," pleaded young Holton, lowering his
voice.

"I think father will be here shortly," Phil remarked irrelevantly.

He had opened himself to the suspicion that he had broached the subject
of the antipathy between their houses merely to test its dramatic value.
To be talking to the daughter of a woman with whom his uncle had eloped
made a situation; it is possible that he liked situations that called
into action his wits and an evident gift for using his voice and eyes.
He had been rapidly noting Phil's good points. He wished to impress her,
and he was not convinced that the impression he had made was favorable
or that she forgave him for touching, however lightly, upon the
ungrateful topic of her mother's dereliction. He had never thought of
his Uncle Jack's escapade with Mrs. K