"I agree with you partly," I said. "Still, it seems to me a man should
love a woman for herself--wholly, entirely for herself, and not because
some other fellow has set his heart on her."

"You are right there, in part," Perry answered. "I have set my heart
on a particular young lady, but the fact that another--a lean,
cadaverous fellow with red whiskers and no particular looks or
brains--is slowly pushing himself between us makes it worse. It
aggravates me; it affects my appetite." Perry smiled grimly. "It
drives away sleep. You know how it 'ud have been if that Snyder County
teacher had been livin' in Six Stars when you was keepin' company with
Emily Holmes."

"I don't know how it would have been at all," I retorted hotly.

"Well, s'posin' when you'd walked four miles to set up with her, and
thought you had her all to yourself, s'pose this Snyder County teacher
with red whiskers, and little twinklin' eyes, and new clothes, come
strollin' in, and stretched out in a chair like he owned her, and begin
tellin' about all the countries he'd seen--about England and Rome, Injy
and Africa--and she leaned for'a'd and looked up into his eyes and just
listened to him talk, drank it all in like--s'pose all that, and then
s'pose----"

"I'll suppose anything you like," said I, "except that I am in love
with Emily Holmes and that the Snyder County teacher is cutting me out.
For example, let us put me in your place. I am enamored of this fair
unknown--of course I can't guess her name--and this second man, also
unknown--he of the red whiskers, is my rival. Let us suppose it that
way."