"I admit there is to me great charm in these barren foot-hills and the
great divide they lead up to," he soberly answered.
As they talked, the swift little horses drummed along the hard road, and
by the time the agency flag-pole came in view they had passed over their
main points of difference, and were chatting gayly on topics not
controversial. Elsie was taking her turn with the reins, her face
flushed with the joy and excitement of it, while Jennie and Mrs.
Parker, shrieking with pretended fear, clung to their seats with
frenzied clasp.
Curtis was as merry as a boy, and his people, seeing him come in smiling
and alert, looked at each other in amazement, and Crow Wing said:
"Our Little Father has found a squaw at last."
Whereas, as her lover, Curtis had been careful to consider the effect of
every word, he now went to Elsie's service as frankly as Lawson himself,
and his thoughtfulness touched her deeply. Her old studio had been put
in order, and contained all needful furniture, and her sleeping
apartment looked very clean and very comfortable indeed.
Jennie apologized. "Of course, it's like camping compared to your own
splendid home, but George said you wouldn't mind that, being an artist.
He has an idea an artist can sleep in a palace one night and a pigsty
the next, and rejoice."
"He isn't so very far wrong," Elsie valiantly replied. "Of course, the
pigsty is a little bit extreme. This is good enough for any one. You are
very kind," she added, softly. "It was good of him to take so much
trouble."
"George is the best man I ever knew," replied Jennie. "That's why I've
never been able to leave him for any other man." She smiled shrewdly.
"I'll admit that eligible men have been scarce, and my chances have been
few. Well, I must run across and look after dinner. You're to eat with
us till you get settled. _We_ insist on being hosts this time."
* * * * *
"Surely," said Curtis, as they rose from the table, "being Indian agent
is not the grim, vexatious experience I once considered it. If the charm
of such company should get reckoned in as one of the perquisites of the
office, the crush of applicants would thicken into a riot. I find it
hard to return to my work in the office."
"Don't be hasty; we may turn out to be nuisances," responded Elsie.