telegraph, Mr. Ravenel? No? It's a funny tale. Ye know that old mill of
yours ain't worth more than a few hunder dollars. But Dulany saw an
advertisement for a new kind of machinery, and he wrote the firm to ask
them what it would cost to have it put in. They sint back the word: tin
thousand dollars, and would he plaze lit thim know immejit if it was
wanted. He didn't wait to write. He telegraphed:

"'If a man had ten thousand dollars, what in hell would he want
with a sawmill?'"

Frank laughed aloud again, uncomprehending the fact that the shrewd
little woman was deliberately holding him with her tales till Katrine
returned.

Inside the house he heard a note, struck suddenly, and repeated over and
over in a voice little above a whisper.

"She's come in the other way. I'll tell her your lordship's wantin'
her," said Nora O'Grady, disappearing.

He looked about him in great content. Things seemed so much as he
desired them to be--the roses, the old furniture, the spinning-wheel,
the coiffed peasant woman--that he waited for Katrine's coming, fearing
that she should be less beautiful than he remembered her.

With some surprise he heard a laugh (he had not thought of her as a girl
who laughed) so merry, so infectious that he found himself wondering
what caused it as the girl herself came through the doorway to greet
him, her rose face radiant, her eyes shining, her hand outstretched.