She felt her blood begin to choke. "Indeed!"

"I gave you a letter to read when I was on the train."

"A letter!" she exclaimed, in well-affected surprise.

"Did you think it was a book of poems? No, ma'am, it was a letter. You
were to read it in a month. Time was up last night. I reckon you read
it."

"Could I read a letter I left at Tucson, when it was a hundred miles
away?" she smiled with sweet patronage.

"Not if you left it at Tucson," he assented, with an answering smile.

"Maybe I DID lose it." She frowned, trying to remember.

"Then I'll have to tell you what was in it."

"Any time will do. I dare say it wasn't important."

"Then we'll say THIS time."

"Don't be stupid, Mr. Collins. I want to talk about our desert Villon."

"I said in that letter--"

She put her pony to a canter, and they galloped side by side in silence
for half a mile. After she had slowed down to a walk, he continued
placidly, as if oblivious of an interruption:

"I said in that letter that I had just met the young lady I was
expecting to marry."

"Dear me, how interesting! Was she in the smoker?"

"No, she was in Section 3 of the Pullman."

"I wish I had happened to go into the other Pullman, but, of course, I
couldn't know the young lady you were interested in was riding there."

"She wasn't."

"But you've just told me--"

"That I said in the letter you took so much trouble to lose that
I expected to marry the young woman passing under the name of Miss
Wainwright."

"Sir!"

"That I expected--"

"Really, I am not deaf, Mr. Collins."

"--expected to marry her, just as soon as she was willing."

"Oh, she is to be given a voice in the matter, is she?"

"Ce'tainly, ma'am."

"And when?"

"Well, I had been thinking now was a right good time."

"It can't be too soon for me," she flashed back, sweeping him with
proud, indignant eyes.

"But I ain't so sure. I rather think I'd better wait."

"No, no! Let us have it done with once and for all."

He relapsed into a serene, abstracted silence.

"Aren't you going to speak?" she flamed.

"I've decided to wait."

"Well, I haven't. Ask me this minute, sir, to marry you."

"Ce'tainly, if you cayn't wait. Miss Mackenzie, will you--"

"No, sir, I won't--not if you were the last man on earth," she
interrupted hotly, whipping herself into a genuine rage. "I never was
so insulted in my life. It would be ridiculous if it weren't so--so
outrageous. You EXPECT, do y