would have to forgo----"

"No pretty little speeches, _please_. At least you can spare me that."

"But, Alice, I mean it, really. And----"

"Save 'em for the Cincinnati girls. They'll believe 'em. Who do you
think will win this afternoon. Let's bet! I'll bet you a--an umbrella
against a pair of gloves, that my cavalier of the yellow fur trousers
will win the bucking contest, and----"

"Our train may pull out before the thing is over, and we would never
know who won."

"Oh, yes we will, because we're going to stay for the finish. Why, I
wouldn't miss this afternoon's fun if forty trains pulled out!"

"I ought to be in Chicago day after tomorrow," objected the man.

"I ought to be, too. But I'm not going to be. For Heaven's sake,
Winthrop, for once in your life, do something you oughtn't to do!"

"All right," laughed the man with a gesture of surrender. "And for the
rope throwing contest I'll pick the other."

"What other?" The girl's eyes strayed past the little wooden buildings
of the town to the clean-cut rim of the bench.

"Why the other who rode after your handkerchief. The fellow who
lassoed the honourable Mayor and was guilty of springing the pun."