he hat;
wiped his neck inside the collar.

"There's another way of lookin' at it," he ventured. "Some might say as
'twas more tactful to let your feelin's cool off by degrees."

"That's no way for me," said 'Bias positively. "Short and sharp's our
motto."

"'Tis the best, no doubt," Cai agreed. "But there's the trouble of
puttin' it into words. . . . I wish, now, I'd thought of consultin'
Peter Benny. There'd be no harm, after all, in steppin' back and askin'
his advice."

"No, you don't," said 'Bias shortly. "In my belief, if we hadn't made
so free wi' consultin' Peter Benny in the past, we shouldn't be where we
be at this moment."

If Cai's thought might be read in his face, he would not have greatly
minded _that_, just now.

"In the matter of these letters for instance--"

"I wonder if she ever got 'em?"

"You bet she did. She's been playin' us off, one against t'other, ever
since."

"We let our feelin's carry us away."

"We let Peter Benny's feelin's carry us away," 'Bias corrected him.
"That's the worst of these writin' chaps. Before you know where you are
they'll harrow you up with feelin's you wasn't aware you entertained.
Now I don't mind confessin' that, afore Benny had started to make out a
fair copy I found myself over head an' ears in love with the woman."

"Me too," agreed Cai, musing.

"You're _sure_ you're not any longer?"

"Eh? . . . Of course I am sure. I was only thinkin' how queer it was he
should have pumped it out of us, so to say, with the same letters--
almost to a syllable."

"There's two ways o' lookin' at that," said 'Bias thoughtfully.
"You may put it that marryin's as common as dirt. Nine out o' ten
indulges in it; and, that bein' so, the same form o' words'll do for
everybody, more or less, in proposin' it; just as (when you come to
think) the same Marriage Service does for all when they come to the
scratch. If all men meant different to all women, there wouldn't be
enough dictionary to go round."

Cai shook his head. "I'm the better of it now," he confessed; "but I
got to own that, at the moment, though Benny did well enough, there
didn't seem enough dictionary to go round."

"I felt something of a rarity myself at the time," owned 'Bias.
"But there's another explanation I like better, though you'll think it
far-fetched. . . . You and me--until this happened, there was never a
cross word atween us, _nor_ a cross thought?"

"That's so, 'Bias."

"Well, and