Page:West of Dodge (1926).pdf/127

 case. The shadows of anxiety were gone out of her face, now bright and winsome as the day. Not one of those round, well-fed faces such as the Charles girls flared like bold sunflowers beside the road, but he must have been perverse, indeed, the night she came, to think her a little too thin.

"Isn't it awful?" she asked suddenly, as if taking it for granted the matter of which she inquired had been running in his mind.

He looked at her in startled inquiry, guiltily, thinking she had surprised him in his thoughts and was attempting self-disparagement, after the facetious way of youth.

"What's that?" he blurted.

"The picture of General Custer. Isn't it a fright?"

"I've seen worse."

"Yes, and better."

"We can say that of so many things, and still not be severe," he said.

"Pop sent it to Kansas City to have the photograph enlarged in grease," Elizabeth told him, so seriously she seemed saddened by the recollection. "He wrote out full instructions for the color of General Custer's mustache and hair, so he always feels that he's one of the contributing artists in that memorable work. They got the color just right he says."

"It isn't bad, either," Hall said, but mildly, with little fervor.

"I wouldn't want pop to know what I really think of that picture for a horse! It doesn't hurt us to dissemble a little for somebody we love, does it, Dr. Hall?"

"Love," said he, looking into her eyes with what he