ighed.

"In another man, it would be craft to say such clever things," she
answered; "but, in you, I know it's just simple goodness of heart and
Christian fellowship. 'Tis amazing how we think alike."

"Not now," he corrected her. "Too late now. I wish to God we had thought
alike; for then, instead of looking at my money as I'd look at a pile of
road scrapings, I should see it with very different eyes. My windfall
would have been poured out here in such a fashion that the people would
have wondered. This place is my life, in a manner of speaking. My
earthly life, I mean; which you may say is ended now. I was, in my own
opinion, as much a part of 'The Seven Stars,' as the beer engine. And
when uncle died this was my first thought. Or I should say my second,
because in the natural course of events, you were the first."

She sighed again and Mr. Legg left this delicate ground.

"If the man can only be brought to see he's wrong about his fanciful
opinion of 'The Tiger,' all may go right for you," he continued. "I
don't care for his feelings over-much, but your peace of mind I do
consider. At present he dares to think you're a silly woman whose goose
is a swan. That's very disorderly coming from the man who's going to
marry you. Therefore you must get some clear-sighted person to open his
eyes, and make it bitter clear to him that 'The Tiger' never was and
never will be a place to draw nice minds and the female element like
us."

"There's nobody could put it to him better than you," she said.

"At another time, perhaps--not now. I'm not clever, Nelly; but I'm too
clever to edge in between a man like Gurd and his future wife. If we
stood different, then nobody would open his mouth quicker than me."

"We may stand different yet," she answered. "There was a good deal of
passion when we met, and not the sort of passion you expect between
lovers, either."

"If that is so," he answered, "then we can only leave it for the future.
But this I'll certainly say: if you tell me presently that you're free
to the nation once more and have changed your mind about Richard, then
I'd very soon let him know there's a gulf fixed between 'The Tiger' and
'The Seven Stars'; and if you said the word, he'd see that gulf getting
broader and broader under his living eyes."

"I'd have overlooked most anything but what he actually said," she
declared. "But to strike at the garden--However, I'll see him, and if I
find he's feeling like what I a