"Well," he said, keenly enjoying the situation and determined to torment her further, "set down. I reckon we'll grub." "Thank you," she mocked, with quick sarcasm; "I was wondering whether you would ask us. Grandpa," she added, turning to Malcolm, "won't you join us? Mr. Marston has been so polite and thoughtful that we certainly ought not to refuse his invitation." She drew out a chair for Malcolm and stood beside it while he shuffled forward and hesitatingly slipped into it, watching Calumet furtively. Then she moved quietly and gracefully to another chair, directly opposite Calumet. Her sarcasm had no perceptible effect on Calumet. Inwardly he was intensely satisfied. His action in seating himself at the table without invitation angered Betty, as he had intended it should. "Some shocked, eh?" he said, helping himself to some bacon and fried potatoes, and passing them to her when he had finished with them. "Shocked?" she returned calmly, unconcernedly supplying herself with food from the dishes she had taken from him, "Oh, my, no. You see, from what your father told me about you, I rather expected you to be a brute." "Aw, Betty," came Malcolm's voice, raised in mild remonstrance; "you hadn't ought to--" "If you please, grandpa," Betty interrupted him, and he subsided and glanced anxiously at Calumet, into whose face had come a dash of dark color. He swallowed a mouthful of bacon before he answered Betty. "Then you ain't disappointed," he sneered. She rested her hands on the table beside her plate, the knife and fork poised, and regarded him with a frank gaze. "No, I am not disappointed. You quite meet my expectations. In fact," she went on, "I thought you would be much worse than you are. So far, if we except your attack on grandfather, you haven't exhibited any vicious traits. You are vain, though, and conceited, and like to bully people. But those are faults that can be corrected." Calumet had to look twice at her before he could be certain that she was not mocking him. "I reckon you're goin' to correct them?" he said, then. She took a sip of coffee and placed the cup delicately down before she answered. "Of course--if you are to stay here." "How?" His lips were in an incredulous sneer. "By showing you that you can't be conceited around me, and that you can't bully me. I suppose," she went on, leaning her elbows on the table and supporting her chin with her hands while she looked straight at him, "that when you came in here and took a seat without being invited, you imagined you were impressing some one with your importance. But you were not; you were merely acting the part of a vulgar boor. Or perhaps you had a vague idea that you were going to do as you please."