Page:Hard-pan; a story of bonanza fortunes (IA hardpanbonanza00bonnrich).pdf/127

Rh After watching her for a moment the visitor said in a tone of restored amiability:

"Are n't those something new?"

She looked at him with quick, grateful recognition of his change of mood.

"Yes; do you like them? I changed my mind about a dozen times before I bought them. Even now I don't know whether I 'm entirely satisfied."

"Oh, you ought to be," he said, as he drew near and eyed the curtains with the air of a connoisseur; "I 'm sure you could n't have chosen anything prettier."

Viola's spirits rose to the level they had been at when he met her earlier in the afternoon. Her eyes brightened and her face took on its most animated expression.

"They 're another outward and visible sign of the rise in mining stock," she continued. "I 'm so glad you noticed them without my having to make you do so."

"Do you want to know why I did?"

"Because they were pretty, of course."

"Not at all. I was looking at you as you arranged them, and wondering why a pair of curtains should be so much more interesting than I was."

"What made you think they were?"

"Because you were devoting yourself to them and coldly ignoring me."