She answered mischievously, "A kind of!"
The large, bearded man looked so exceedingly grave that Podge burst out
laughing.
"Don't you know," she wrote, "that the propensity to plague a man
dependent on you is inherent in every healthy woman?"
He wrote, "I do know it, and it's a crime!"
Podge thought to herself "This old man is dreadfully serious and
suspicious sometimes."
As Duff Salter relapsed into silence, gazing on the fire, the voice of
Calvin Van de Lear was heard by Podge, pitched in a low and confident
key, from the parlor side:
"I called, Agnes, when I thought sufficient time had elapsed since the
troubles here, to express my deep interest in you, and to find you, I
hoped, with a disposition to turn to the sunny side of life's affairs."
"I am not ready to take more than a necessary part in anything outside
of this house," replied Agnes. "My mind is altogether preoccupied. I
thank you for your good wishes, Mr. Van de Lear."
"Now do be less formal," said the young man persuasively. "I have always
been Cal. before--short and easy, Cal. Van de Lear. _You_ might call me
almost anything, Aggy."
"I have changed, sir. Our afflictions have taught me that I am no longer
a girl."
"You won't call me Cal., then?"
"No, Mr.
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