The lady laughed. "Please don't bother to hold her," she said; "I don't mind--now." "I guess your dress ain't really hurt," commented Saterlee. "I remember my old woman--Anna--had a brown silk that got a mud bath, and came through all right." "This is an old rag, anyway," said the showy lady, who was still showy in spite of a wart-like knot of dried mud on the end of her nose. And she glanced at her spattered but graceful and expensive white linen and hand-embroidered dress. "Well, I can see one thing," said Saterlee, "that you've made up your mind to go through this experience like a good sport. I wish I didn't have to take up so much room." "Never mind," she said, "I like to think that I could go to sleep without danger of falling out." "That's so--that's so," said Saterlee. "Maybe it's just as well we're something of a tight fit." "I have always mistrusted thin men," said the lady, and she hastily added: "Not that you're _fat_" "My bones are covered," said Saterlee; "I admit it." "Yes," she said, "but with big muscles and sinews." "I am not weak," said Saterlee; "I admit it." "What air this is," exclaimed the lady; "what delicious air. No wonder it cures people with lung trouble. Still, I'm glad mine are sound." "I'm glad to hear you say that, Ma'am," said Saterlee. "When you said you were bound for Carcasonne House, I thought to myself, 'Mebbe she's got it,' and I felt mighty sorry." "Do I look like a consumptive?" she asked. "Bless me--no," said he. "But you're not stout, and, considering where you said you was going, you mustn't blame me for putting two and two together and getting the wrong answer." "I don't blame you at all," she said, but a little stiffly. "It was perfectly natural. No," she said, "my daughter is at Carcasonne House. She had a very heavy cold--and other troubles--and _two_ doctors agreed that her lungs were threatened. Well, perhaps they were. I sent her to Carcasonne House on the doctors' recommendation. And it seems that she's just as sound as I am." "What a relief to you, Ma'am," said Saterlee hastily. "Yes," she said, but without enthusiasm, "a great relief." He screwed his massive head around on his massive neck, not without difficulty, and looked at her. His voice sounded hurt. "You don't seem very glad, Ma'am," he said. Her answer, on a totally different topic, surprised him. "Do you believe in blood?" she said. "Do you believe that blood will--_must_ tell?" "Ma'am," he said, "if I can draw my check for twenty-five thousand dollars it's because I was born believing that blood will tell. It's because I've acted on it all my life. And it's the truth, and I've made a fortune out of it.... Cattle," he added in explanation.