Part 7 (2/2)
He likes Bangor, you know!” Gilbert smiled.
”He takes it sort o' hard, don't he?”
”Well, you can't blame the old boy. You see, I got him to sell out everything--everything, and invest in this ranch. Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do; but I thought I was certain to succeed. I meant all for the best, 'Red.' You know that.” Who could doubt those gray eyes of Gilbert Jones, that open, frank, boyish face?
”Of course I do.” He got up, and walked over to the window. ”Your uncle don't like jokin' much, does he? I asked him the other day why he didn't get a chauffeur. Gos.h.!.+ he got mad!” ”Red” laughed at the recollection.
”Uncle Henry's in no joking mood just now. You can't blame him much.”
”Red” turned and looked at his employer. He didn't know whether he should ask the next question or not; but he took his courage in his hands.
”He--he wants you to--to marry Angela Hardy, don't he?”
Gilbert looked surprised. ”Hardy's daughter?”
”Red” nodded.
”How did you know?” Jones asked.
”Because he ain't talked of nothin' else for six months. You wasn't thinkin' of doin' it, was you?” He hung on Gilbert's answer.
”Hardly!” with a smile.
The relief of ”Red”!
”I know, I know!” he cried. ”But once she gets her mind set on a thing--”
”You mean you think she wants to marry me? Is that it?” Gilbert asked, not taking the matter very seriously. He was busy at the box again, pulling the top farther back.
”Well, I don't know as I'd say that,” ”Red” offered; ”but I think she thinks she wants to.” He was sitting on the edge of the table, swinging one leg. ”She's p.r.o.ne to fancies, Angela is. Even I gotter admit that!”
”_Even_ you?” Gilbert inquired, puzzled.
The question made ”Red” a bit nervous. He jumped to the floor, and then sat down in the chair beside the table, pretending to be very much at ease.
”Like that traveling man from Saint Looey,” he explained. ”She thought she cared for him. I tried to tell her different. I had to run him out of town with a gun to prove it. But even then she didn't believe it until that New York surveyor come along.”
Gilbert looked up, ”And she thought she loved him?”
”Until she met up with that hoss doctor from Albuquerque! An' now there's a new feller in Bisbee!”
Jones was a trifle mystified, ”Say, how do you happen to know so much about her affairs, 'Red'?”
How involved he had become! He blushed like a schoolboy; got up, took his pipe out of his mouth and emptied it in the fireplace. ”Me?” he said. ”Oh, I've knowed her a long time.”
Jones was beginning to see the truth, to read the heart of this young rascal. So it was over at the Hardy's that he spent so many hours!
”Oh, so that's it, is it? What's the matter? Does her father object?”
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