in her presence, she was greatly amused by his naive acceptance of her
as an equal. Suddenly, looking frankly in her face, he said:

"I'll show you a secret, if you care to see it."

Nothing would please her more.

He glanced hurriedly around, took a key from his pocket, and unlocked
the padlock that secured the closet she had noticed. Then, reaching
within, with infinite care he brought out a small mechanical model.

"There's an invention of my own. A reaper and thresher combined. I'm
going to have it patented and have a big one made from this model. This
will work, as you see."

He then explained to her with great precision how as it moved over the
field the double operation was performed by the same motive power. That
it would be a saving of a certain amount of labor and time which she
could not remember. She did not understand a word of his explanations;
she saw only a clean and pretty but complicated toy that under the
manipulation of his grimy fingers rattled a number of frail-like staves
and worked a number of wheels and drums, yet there was no indication of
her ignorance in her sparkling eyes and smiling, breathless attitude.
Perhaps she was interested in his own absorption; the revelation of
his preoccupation with this model struck her as if he had made her
a confidante of some boyish passion for one of her own sex, and she
regarded him with the same sympathizing superiority.

"You will make a fortune out of it," she said pleasantly.