had spoken. Besides, he had no wife to fly to, and the thirsty or
indignant Byers had--his wife! Fate was indeed hard. He returned with
the bottle of lemon soda on a tray and a resigned spirit equal to her
decrees. Mary Ellen, remarking that he had brought nothing for himself,
archly insisted upon his sharing with her the bottle of soda, and even
coquettishly touched his lips with her glass. Abner smiled patiently.
But here, as if playfully exhilarated by the naughty foaming soda, she
regarded him with her head--and a good deal of her blonde hair--very
much on one side, as she said, "Do you know that all along o' you bein'
so free with me in tellin' your affairs I kinder feel like just telling
you mine?"
"Don't," said Abner promptly.
"Don't?" echoed Miss Budd.
"Don't," repeated Abner. "It's nothing to me. What I said about myself
is different, for it might make some difference to you. But nothing you
could say of yourself would make any change in me. I stick to what I
said just now."
"But," said Miss Budd,--in half real, half simulated threatening,--"what
if it had suthin' to do with my answer to what you said just now?"
"It couldn't. So, if it's all the same to you, Miss Budd, I'd rather ye
wouldn't."
"That," said the lady still more archly, lifting a playful finger, "is
your temper."
"Mebbe it is," said Abner suddenly, with a wondering sense of relief.
It was, however, settled that Miss Budd should go to Sacramento to visit
her friends, that Abner would join her later, when their engagement
would be announced, and that she should not return to the hotel until
they were married. The compact was sealed by the interchange of a
friendly kiss from Miss Budd with a patient, tolerating one from Abner,
and then it suddenly occurred to them both that they might as well
return to their duties in the hotel, which they did. Miss Budd's entire
outing that Sunday lasted only half an hour.
A week elapsed. Miss Budd was in Sacramento, and the landlord of the Big
Flume Hotel was standing at his usual post in the doorway during dinner,
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