The difficulty of her position crushed her courage. Of course she must say no, but how do it without affronting him? The idea of reasoning him gently out of the preposterous wish came to her. “This is some flying notion in your head, Milton,” she said, civilly. “You will have forgotten it by next week.” “Forgott’n it, ay! Yeh think sao? What ’f I told yeh I hain’t thought o’ nothin’ else fur nigh onto ten year?” His tone was too earnest and excited to render further trifling safe. He pulled out of an inner pocket and held up before her a little, irregularly squared tin-type--which she recognized as having been made in whimsical burlesque of her lineaments by an itinerant photographer years before. “How did you come by that?” she asked, to gain time. “I got it fr’m th’ man thet made it, ’n’ I paid a dollar bill fer it, tew,” he answered triumphantly, “’n’ I’ve kep it by me ever sence!” After a pause she said, as calmly as she could: “I never dreamed that such a thought had entered your head. Of course, it--it can’t be.” “Why not, I’d like to knaow?” he demanded. “Don’t yeh b’lieve what I’ve told yeh ’baout my bein’ well off?” “That hasn’t anything to do with it. There are other reasons--a good many other reasons.” “What air they?” His tone was peremptory. “I don’t know that I can explain them to you. But truly there are so many of them--and your words took me so wholly by surprise, that--that----” “Yeh needn’t mince matters! I _knaow!_ Yeh hev sot yer idees on Seth! Yeh needn’t tell me yeh hain’t!” “I won’t talk with you at all if you shout at me in that way, and contradict me flat when I assure you to the contrary.” Milton paused for a moment, to consider the situation. They were approaching the poplars now, along the lonely turnpike, and the conversation could not be much protracted. What he had to say must be said without delay. But what was it that he wished to say? A dozen inchoate plans rose amorphously to the surface of his mind--to cajole her, to strive further to impress her with his wealth, to entreat her, to attempt to bully her. This last resource ran best with his mood, but there were difficulties. Annie was the reverse of a cowardly girl; there was nothing timid or tremulous about her; if he attempted to intimidate her, the enterprise would most probably be a ridiculous failure, for he stood too much in awe of her self-reliance and intelligence to have confidence in his own mastery. But stay--she was fearful about Seth. Whether it was true or not that she had no idea of marrying her cousin, she was evidently solicitous for his safety. An idea born of this conclusion swiftly engrafted itself upon the hired man’s general strategy. He lifted his light, shifty eyes from the grass of the roadside path to her face, once more, and said: