tton on the garment for him, and
she wore that dreamy glaze that comes over women's eyes when they sew
for other people.

From the interior of the house rose and fell the murmur of a number of
voices engaged in a conversation, which, for a time, seemed to consist
of dejected monosyllables; but presently the judge and Minnie heard
Helen's voice, clear, soft, and trembling a little with excitement. She
talked only two or three minutes, but what she said stirred up a great
commotion. All the voices burst forth at once in ejaculations--almost
shouts; but presently they were again subdued and still, except for
the single soft one, which held forth more quietly, but with a deeper
agitation, than any of the others.

"You needn't try to bamboozle me," said the judge in a covert tone to
his daughter, and with a glance at the parlor window, whence now issued
the rumble of Warren Smith's basso. "I tell you that girl would follow
John Harkless to Jericho."

Minnie shook her head mysteriously, and bit a thread with a vague frown.

"Well, why not?" asked the judge crossly.

"Why wouldn't she have him, then?"

"Well, who knows he's asked her yet?"

Minnie screamed derisively at the density of man, "What made him run off
that way, the night he was hurt? Why didn't he come back in the house
with her?"

"Pshaw!"

"Don't you suppose a woman understands?"

"Meaning that you know more about it than I do, I presume," grunted the
old gentleman.

"Yes, father," she replied, smiling benignantly upon him.

"Did she tell you?" he asked abruptly.

"No, no. I guess the truth is that women don't know more than men so
much as they see more; they understand more without having to read about
it."

"That's the way of it, is it?" he laughed. "Well, it don't make any
difference, she'll have him some time."

"No, father; it's only gratitude."

"Gratitude!" The judge snorted scornfully. "Girls don't do as much as
she's done for him out of gratitude. _Look_ what she's doing; not only
running the 'Herald' for him, but making it a daily, and a good daily at
that. First time I saw her I knew right away she was the smartest girl
I ever laid eyes on;--I expect she must have got it from her mother.
Gratitude! Pooh! Look how she's studied his interests, and watched like
a cat for chances for him in everything. Didn't she get him into Eph
Watts's company? She talked to Watts and the other fellows, day after
day, and drove around their leased la