"I do not care to go anywhere with the Dustins," she said, with decision. "I do not care to go anywhere at all this summer. Father!" There was a volume of protest in the intonation of the word. She had the bluntness of his business air when she was aroused. "I would be blind and a fool not to understand why you are so determined to throw me in with the Dustins. You want me to marry that bland and blessed son and heir. But I'll not do any such thing." "You are jumping at conclusions, Elva," he returned, feeling that he himself had suddenly become the hunted. "I've got enough of your wit, father, to know what's in a barrel when there's a knot-hole for me to peep through." "Now that you have brought up the subject, what reason is there for your not wanting to marry Weston Dustin? He's--" "I know all about him," she interrupted. "There is no earthly need for you and me to get into a snarl of words about him, dadah! He isn't the man I want for a husband; and when John Barrett's only daughter tells him that with all her heart and soul, I don't believe John Barrett is going to argue the question or ask for further reasons or give any orders." He bridled in turn. "But I'm going to tell you, for my part, that I want you to marry Weston Dustin! It has been my wish for a long time, though I have not wanted to hurry you." She urged on the pony, as though anxious to end a _tête-à-tête_ that was becoming embarrassing. "It might be well to save our discussion of Mr. Dustin until that impetuous suitor has shown that he wants to marry me," she remarked, with a little acid in her tone. "He has come to me like a gentleman, told me what he wants, and asked my permission," stated Mr. Barrett. "Following a strictly business rule characteristic of Mr. Dustin--'Will you marry your timber lands to my saw-mill, Mr. John Barrett, one daughter thrown in?'" "At least he didn't come sneaking around by the back door!" cried her father, jarred out of his earlier determination to probe the matter craftily. "Intimating thereby that I have an affair of the heart with the iceman or the grocery boy?" she inquired, tartly. She was looking full at him now with all the Barrett resoluteness shining in her eyes. And he, with only the vague and malicious promptings of Pulaski Britt for his credentials, had not the courage to make the charge that was on his tongue, for his heart rejected it now that he was looking into her face. "In the old times stern parents married off daughters as they would dispose of farm stock," she said, whipping her pony with a little unnecessary vigor. "But I had never learned that the custom had obtained in the Barrett family. Therefore, father, we will talk about something more profitable than Mr. Dustin." Outside the city, in the valley where the road curved to enter the gates of "Oaklands," they met Dwight Wade returning, chastened by self-communion.