"Yes."

"Why?"

"Well," said Jim somewhat awkwardly, "it COULD be done, you know.
I'm willin'."

As she did not immediately reply, he continued uneasily, "Miss
Preston says we kin get a nice little house that is near the Fort,
until we want to build."

"Oh, then you HAVE talked about it?"

"Yes--that is--why, what are ye thinkin' of, Mag? Wasn't it YOUR
idea all along?" he said, suddenly facing her with querulous
embarrassment. They had been sitting in their usual evening
attitudes of Assyrian frieze profile, with even more than the usual
Assyrian frieze similarity of feature.

"Yes; but, Jim dear, do you think it the best thing for--for us to
do?" said Maggie, with half-frightened gravity.

At this sudden and startling exhibition of female inconsistency and
inconsequence, Jim was for a moment speechless. Then he recovered
himself, volubly, aggrievedly, and on his legs. What DID she mean?
Was he to give up understanding girls--or was it their sole
vocation in life to impede masculine processes and shipwreck
masculine conclusions? Here, after all she said the other night,
after they had nearly "quo'lled" over her "set idees," after she'd
"gone over all that foolishness about Jael and Sisera--and there