“I mean `fair.' Can I talk to you about her at all? I promised I'd stick it out here and do as she said. She told me she wasn't going to write to me or let her father write. I've promised, and I'm not going to fall down when I've said a thing.” “So tha coom to see her grandmother?” He reddened, but held his head up. “I'm not going to ask her grandmother a thing she doesn't want me to be told. But I've been up against it pretty hard lately. I read some things in the New York papers about her father and his invention, and about her traveling round with him and helping him with his business.” “In Germany they wur,” she put in, forgetting herself. “They're havin' big doin's over th' invention. What Joe 'u'd do wi'out th' lass I canna tell. She's doin' every bit o' th' managin' an' contrivin' wi' them furriners--but he'll never know it. She's got a chap to travel wi' him as can talk aw th' languages under th' sun.” Her face flushed and she stopped herself sharply. “I'm talkin' about her to thee!” she said. “I would na ha' believed o' mysen'.” He got up from his chair. “I guess I oughtn't to have come,” he said, restlessly. “But you haven't told me more than I got here and there in the papers. That was what started me. It was like watching her. I could hear her talking and see the way she was doing things till it drove me half crazy. All of a sudden, I just got wild and made up my mind I'd come here. I've wanted to do it many a time, but I've kept away.” “Tha showed sense i' doin' that,” remarked Mrs. Hutchinson. “She'd not ha' thowt well o' thee if tha'd coom runnin' to her grandmother every day or so. What she likes about thee is as she thinks tha's got a strong backbone o' thy own.” She looked up at him over her knitting, looked straight into his eyes, and there was that in her own which made him redden and feel his pulse quicken. It was actually something which even remotely suggested that she was not--in the deeps of her strong old mind--as wholly unswerving as her words might imply. It was something more subtle than words. She was not keeping him wholly in the dark when she said “What she likes about thee.” If Ann said things like that to her, he was pretty well off. “Happen a look at a lass's grandmother--when tha conna get at th' lass hersen--is a bit o' comfort,” she added. “But don't tha go walkin' by here to look in at th' window too often. She would na think well o' that either.” “Say! There's one thing I'm going to get off my chest before I go,” he announced, “just one thing. She can go where she likes and do what she likes, but I'm going to marry her when she's done it--unless something knocks me on the head and finishes me. I'm going to marry her.” “Tha art, art tha?” laconically; but her eyes were still on his, and the something in their depths by no means diminished.