in the loving eyes of the man beside her.

He, however, repeated the question, touched with her charming
preoccupation, and passing his arm around her little waist.

"I like it well enough, pa, you know!" she said, slightly
disengaging his arm, but adding a perfunctory little squeeze to his
elbow to soften the separation. "I always had an idea SOMETHING
would happen. I suppose I'm looking like a fright," she added;
"but ma made me hurry to get away before Don Caesar came."

"And you didn't want to go without seeing him?" he added, archly.

"I didn't want him to see me in this frock," said Mamie, simply.
"I reckon that's why ma made me change," she added, with a slight
laugh.

"Well I reckon you're allus good enough for him in any dress," said
Mulrady, watching her attentively; "and more than a match for him
NOW," he added, triumphantly.

"I don't know about that," said Mamie. "He's been rich all the
time, and his father and grandfather before him; while we've been
poor and his tenants."

His face changed; the look of bewilderment, with which he had
followed her words, gave way to one of pain, and then of anger.
"Did he get off such stuff as that?" he asked, quickly.

"No. I'd like to catch him at it," responded Mamie, promptly.