Nervously Loudon began to roll another cigarette. He hoped that Mrs. Burr had finished. His hope was vain. "Well, now, Tom, ain't I right?" she demanded. "Shore, ma'am, shore, plumb right," Loudon hastened to assure her. "'Course I am. I knowed yuh'd see it that way. Why don't yuh do it?" "Do it?" "Yuh know perfectly well what I mean. Ask a girl to marry yuh." "Any girl?" "Not just any girl. If yuh was to ask me I could tell yuh who right quick. But I suppose that wouldn't do." Loudon was devoutly thankful that the lady possessed some sense of propriety. "We-e-ell, ma'am," he said, slowly, "no girl would have me." "Did yuh ever ask one?" This with a shrewd cock of the eyebrow. "I did once." "An' she give yuh the mitten, huh? More fool she. Listen to me: when a hoss bucks yuh off, what do yuh do? Give up, or climb aboard again?" "That's different." "'Tain't a bit different. Girl or hoss, a man shouldn't ever give up. Y'asked a girl once, didn't yuh? Yuh said yuh did. Well, ask her again. Land sakes alive, give her a chance to change her mind!" Good heavens! Did Mrs. Burr mean Kate Saltoun? Impossible. But was it impossible? Of late, the seemingly impossible had had an uncanny habit of coming to pass. Loudon shivered. He was quite positive that he did not love Kate. The longer he considered the matter the more fully convinced he became that he did not wish to marry any one. Which was natural. Bid a man fall in love with a girl and he will at once begin to find fault with her. "She--she wouldn't have me," dissembled Loudon. "It's no use talkin', ma'am, I'm what the fellah in the book calls a shore-enough blighted being. It makes me feel terrible, ma'am, but yuh can't do nothin'. Nobody can. I just got to bear it, I guess." He sighed enormously, but there was a twinkle in the gray eyes. "Yo're laughin'!" exclaimed Mrs. Burr, severely. "I'd like to shake yuh, I would. It ain't for nothin' that man an' mule begin with the same letter. Stubborn! My land o' livin', a girl's feelin's ain't nothin' to yuh! What do you care, yuh great big good-for-nothin' lummox!" "Now, ma'am," chided Loudon, grinning, "yo're gettin' real excited." "Who wouldn't? Here I am----" "Say," interrupted Loudon, "when it comes to that, here I am gettin' fifty-five dollars a month. However can I get married, even if anybody'd have me, with silk dresses at five dollars a yard?" "Silk dresses! What d'yuh mean by that?" "Why, ma'am, I wouldn't let my wife wear nothin' but silk dresses mornin', noon, an' night. Nothin' would be too good for my wife. So yuh see how it is. I dassent think o' marriage." Words failed Mrs. Burr. It was probably the first time that they had failed her. She gasped, gasped again, then stamped to the stove and furiously rattled the frying-pan.