t once. O I--you think I mean Miss Halliday--well I do. Miss
Garnet can tease me about her all she likes--ha, ha! it doesn't faze me!
Miss Fannie's nothing to me but a dear friend--never was! Why, she's
older than I am--h-though h-you'd never suspect it."

"Well, yes, I think I should have known it."

"O go 'long! Somebody told you! But I swear, Mr. Fair, I wonder, sir,
you're not more struck with Miss Halliday. Now, I go in for mind and
heart. I don't give a continental for externals; and yet--did you ever
see such glorious eyes as Fan--Miss Halliday's? Now, honest Ingin! _did_
you, _ever_?"

Mr. Fair admitted that Miss Halliday's eyes danced.

"You say they do? You're right! Hah! _they_ dance Spanish dances. I've
seen black eyes that went through you like a sword; I've seen blue eyes
that drilled through you like an auger; and I've seen gray ones that bit
through you like a cold-chisel; and I've seen--now, there's Miss
Garnet's, that just see through you without going through you at all--O
I don't like any of 'em! but Fannie Halliday's eyes--Miss Fannie, I
should say--they seem to say, 'Come out o' that. I'm not looking at all,
but I know you're there!' O sir!--Mr. Fair, don't you hate, sir, to see
such a creature as that get married to anybody? I say, to _anybody_! I
tell you what it's like, Mr. Fair. It's like chloroforming a butterfly,
sir! That's what it's like!"

He meditated and presently resumed--"But, Law' no! She's nothing to me.
I've got too much to think of with these lands on my hands. D'you know,
sir, I really speak more freely to you than if you belonged here and
knew me better? And I confess to you that a girl like F--Miss
Halliday--would be enough to keep me from ever marrying!"

"Why, how is that?"

"Why? O well, because!--knowing her, I couldn't ever be content with
less, and, of course, I couldn't get her or make her happy if I got her.
Torture for one's better than torture for two. Mind, that's a long ways
from saying I ever did want her, or ever will. I'm happy as I
am--confirmed bachelor--ha-ha-ha! What I do want, Mr. Fair, sir, is to
colonize these lands, and to tell you the truth, sir--h--I don't know
how to do it!"

"Are your titles good?"

"Perfect."

"Are the lands free from mortgage?"

"Free! ha-ha! they'd be free from mortgage, sir, but for one thing."

"What's that?"

"Why, they're mortgaged till you can't rest! The mortgages ain't so
mortal much, but they've been on so l