She wasn't lively like the rest."
"Pshaw!" said Westerfelt; "you are off the track."
"Well, no odds." Bates began to tug at his glove again. "I've come to
you like a man an' made an open breast of it, as the feller said. I
intend to ask her point-blank the very first time I get her alone
again. The girl hain't give me the least bit of hope, but her mother
has--a little. I reckon a feller might take it that way."
"What did Mrs. Floyd say?" Westerfelt started, and looked Bates
straight in the eyes.
"Oh, nothing much; I may be a fool to think it meant anything, but this
morning when I called for Miss Harriet the old lady came in and acted
mighty friendly. She asked me to come to dinner with 'em next Sunday,
and said Harriet always was backward about showing a preference for the
young man she really liked, an' said she was shore I didn't care much
for her or I'd come oftener."
Westerfelt was silent. He had never suspected Mrs. Floyd of scheming,
but now that his suspicions were roused he let them run to the opposite
extreme.
Yes, he thought, she was trying to marry her daughter off.
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