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 of having a human heart, mental culture, and consideration of others, to make Jamie look twice. This young party evidently was thinking mostly of herself. Jamie watched her advancing toward him down the back walk and the first thought that came to him as she was sharply delineated in a patch of sunlight was: “She looks hard.”

Persistently he went on with his work. The girl was now within a few yards of him. She stopped and studied him intently.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said, “there’s nothing here that can suffer greatly in the few days that will be required to arrange the papers so that I can come into possession of my property. I prefer that you leave me in undisputed possession.”

Jamie looked at the girl and smiled, and it was a winsome smile, a bonny smile.

“Don’t you think,” he said, “that you are asking a good deal of human nature? I’ve been caring for this place for quite a while now; I’ve been thinking it was my own for some time past. You are confident to an unusual degree if you think I am going to walk out and turn over property that stands on the records in my name without having seen any proof you have to offer, without knowing whether you can establish the claims you make before acourt. Do you mean that if you came into possession of this property you would live here, you would make your home here?”

The young lady glanced around her. Jamie’s incredulity irritated her.