"How could you, bein' a woman?" he replied as gently. "An' you too, Marcia?" "Of course; don't I belong to the weaker sex? But here is Jamie, although a man--" "Oh, I say, Marcia, that's not playing fair," Jamie growled at me as if indifferent; but I knew his curiosity was at the flood, and Cale knew it too. I feared he might tease without satisfying. "Yes, I 'm married, Mis' Macleod, an' it seems as if I 'd always been married." Jamie's recent remark about Cale's being a widower, grass-widower, divorcé, Mormon, etc., came back to me, and I could hardly keep from laughing aloud at Mrs. Macleod's look of dismay and amazement. "I say I'm married, fer you see that once married is always married with _me_," he repeated emphatically. The Doctor nodded approvingly. "No uncertain note about that, Cale." "No sir--_ee_," Cale nodded understandingly at him in turn, much to Jamie's delight. "A marriage when it _is_ a marriage--'fore God an' men, an' 'fore the altar of two lovin' hearts, is fer good--fer this world anyway, an' fer the next if there is one. 'T ain't often you can come acrosst 'em now-a-days. I guess some men, put it to 'em on a sudden, could n't say under oath whether they was married or single, seein' this divorce business mixes things up worse 'n a progressive euchre party. I 'm only speakin' fer myself, mind you, an' I don't set up fer judgin' others." "Good for you, Cale! Those are my sentiments," said the Doctor laughing heartily at Cale's idea of the "progressive euchre party". "It's what keeps me young," Cale continued earnestly; "fer jest the thought of the one woman I loved, an' love now with all the love thet 's in me, warms me jest as this blaze would thaw freezin' sap; it keeps me, as you might say, kinder thawed out with folks, an' a durned cussed tough world." He paused a moment and, leaning forward, clasped his hands around his crossed knees. I had seen him do this only when he was bracing himself to say something of deep significance. He faced me squarely, with the same keen look that I detected on the first night of my arrival. "I 've been wonderin', Marcia, if you did n't hail from somewheres near my place, Spencerville, in northern New England, jest over the line--though come ter think of it, you said you was born in New York, did n't you?" Brought to bay by this question, put to me suddenly without warning, I brought all my self control to bear on my voice and answered: "Yes, I was born there, but my home for two thirds of my life was in the vicinity of Spencerville."