"Don't you see what fun it's been for her?" returned Minnie. "She's been
having the best time she ever had; I never knew any one half so happy."
"Yes; she went up and saw him at that party, and she knows he's still
thinking about her. I shouldn't be surprised if he asked her then, and
that's what makes her so gay."
"Well, she couldn't have said 'yes,' because he went back to his bed the
next day, and he's been there most of the time since."
"Pshaw! He wasn't over his injuries, and he was weak and got malaria."
"Well, she couldn't be so happy while he's sick, if she cared very much
about him."
"He's not very sick. She's happy because she's working for him, and she
knows his illness isn't serious. He'll be a well man when she says the
word. He's love-sick, that's what he is; I never saw a man so taken down
with it in my life."
"Then it isn't malaria?" Minnie said, with a smile of some superiority.
"You're just like your poor mother," the old gentleman answered, growing
rather red. "She never could learn to argue. What I say is that Helen
cares about him, whether she says she does or not, whether she acts like
it or not--or whether she thinks she does or not," he added irascibly. "Do
you know what she's doing for him to-day?"
"Not exactly."
"Well, when they were talking together at that party, he said something
that made her think he was anxious to get away from Plattville--you're not
to repeat this, child; she told me, relying on my discretion."
"Well?"
"Do you know why she's got these men to come here to-day to meet her--
Warren Smith and Landis and Homer, and Boswell and young Keating of Amo,
and Tom Martin and those two fellows from Gaines County?"
"Something about politics, isn't it?"
"'Something about politics!'" he echoed. "I should say it is! Wait till
it's done, and this evening I'll tell you--if you can keep a secret."
Minnie set her work-basket on the steps. "Oh, I guess I can keep a
secret," she said. "But it won't make any difference."
"You mean you've said it, and you'll stick to it that it's gratitude till
their wedding day."
"She knows he gave her father something to do, and helped him in other
ways, when no one else did."