"Oh, now, Mr. Bowles," protested Mrs. Lee, laying a restraining hand on his arm, "I hope you will not shatter all my hopes by falling into this dreadful vernacular. If you only knew how much I enjoy your manner of speaking, if you knew what memories of New York and the old life your words bring up, you would hesitate, I am sure, to cast aside your heritage. Really, if Henry would have let me, I should have invited you up to the house the very evening you came; but you--well, you had some disagreement with him at the start, and it's rather prejudiced him against you. And, besides, he has his ideas of discipline, you know, and against making exceptions of one man over another; and so--well, I did hope you would be able to drive, because now I want to have a good long talk. "I'm not proud, or 'stuck up,' as they say out here, Mr. Bowles," she went on, as if eager to begin her holiday; "and really I do everything in my power to be friendly, but the class of people who come here--these poor, ignorant nesters, and rough, hard-swearing cowboys--they seem actually to resent my manner of speaking. Of course, I was a school-teacher for a few years--before I married Henry--and I suppose that has made a difference; but I do get so lonely sometimes, with Dixie out riding around somewhere and Henry off on the round-up--and yet I just can't bring myself to speak this awful, vulgar Texas-talk. Now Dixie, she rides around anywhere, speaks to all the women, says 'Howdy' to all the men, and, I declare, when I hear her talking with these cowboys I wonder if she's my own daughter! They have such common ways of expressing themselves, although I must say they are always polite enough--but what I really object to is their familiar attitude toward Dixie. No matter what their class or station, they always seem to take it for granted that they are perfectly eligible, and that she is sure to marry one of them, and that even the commonest has a kind of gambler's chance to win her hand." She paused, overcome apparently by memories of past courtships, and Bowles shuffled his feet uneasily. "Of course," he said at length, "your daughter is very attractive----" "Oh, do you think so?" exclaimed Mrs. Lee, making no concealment of her pleasure in the fact. "I thought, from the way you spoke to her--when I introduced you, you know----" "Oh, that was just my manner!" interrupted Bowles hastily. "A little embarrassed, perhaps." "But I thought," persisted Mrs. Lee, "I thought from the way you both acted that you had met before. In New York, perhaps--you know, she has been there all winter--or some time before that evening. You know, Dixie is generally so free with the new cowboys, but she spoke up at you so sharply, and you----"