before."

"Well, but listen, Johnny! Dad doesn't look at it that way at all. He
knows you didn't mean to let those horses be stolen. He doesn't feel
you owe him anything at all, Johnny. Now we're engaged, he'll give you
a good--"

"You don't get me, Mary V. I don't care what your father thinks. It's
what I think that counts. This airplane of mine cost your dad a lot of
good horses, and I've got to make that good to him. If I can't sell
the darned thing and pay him up, I'll have to--"

"I suppose what I think doesn't count anything at all! I say you don't
owe dad a cent. Now that you are going to marry me--"

"You talk as if you was an encumbrance your dad had to pay me to take
off his hands," blurted Johnny distractedly. "Our being engaged
doesn't make any difference--"

"Oh, doesn't it? I'm tremendously glad to know you feel that way about
it. Since it doesn't make any difference whatever--"

"Aw, cut it out, Mary V! You know darn well what I meant."

"Why, certainly. You mean that our being engaged doesn't make a
particle--"

"Say, _listen_ a minute, will you! I'm going to pay your dad for those
horses that were run off right under my nose while I was tinkering with
this airplane. I don't care what you think, or what old Sudden thinks,