Page:BM Bower - Her Prairie Knight.djvu/38

 think about taking a roundabout course to reach his heart's"

"Isn't it lovely?" Beatrice made haste to inquire.

"Lovely isn't half expressive enough," he told her. "You look"

"The river is so very blue and dignified. I've been wondering if it has forgotten how it must have danced through those hills, away off there. When it gets down to the cities—this blue water—it will be muddy and nasty looking. The 'muddy Missouri' certainly doesn't apply here. And that farther shore is simply magnificent. I wish I might stay here forever."

"The Lord forbid!" cried he, with considerable fervor. "There's a dear nook in old England where I hope"

"You did get that mud off your leggings, I see," Beatrice remarked inconsequently. "James must have worked half the time we've been here. They certainly were in a mess the last time I saw them."

"Bother the leggings! But I take it that's a good sign, Miss Lansell—your taking notice of such things."

Beatrice returned to the landscape. "I wonder 36