"Nobody! never was so surprised in my life! When you opened that door
just now you might have knocked me down with a feather." Yet he spoke
lazily, with an amused face, and looked at her without changing his
position.
"But you MUST have known SOMETHING! It was no mere accident," she went
on vehemently, glancing around the room.
"That's where you slip up, Nell," said Hamlin imperturbably. "It WAS an
accident and a bad one. My horse lamed himself coming down the grade. I
sighted the nearest shanty, where I thought I might get another horse.
It happened to be this." For the first time he changed his attitude, and
leaned back contemplatively in his chair.
She came towards him quickly. "You didn't use to lie, Jack," she said
hesitatingly.
"Couldn't afford it in my business,--and can't now," said Jack
cheerfully. "But," he added curiously, as if recognizing something in
his companion's agitation, and lifting his brown lashes to her, the
window, and the ceiling, "what's all this about? What's your little game
here?"
"I'm married," she said, with nervous intensity,--"married, and this is
my husband's house!"
"Not married straight out!--regularly fixed?"
"Yes," she said hurriedly.
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