The speaker paused, as if waiting for her words to take root and sprout in his comprehension, but he said nothing--only sat staring at her, as if trying to divine her subtle drift.
"It was while you was away, Alfred," she continued, "and--and there was so much talk about what I was doing at that time, you remember, to--to show respect for Dick's memory. For a girl as young as she is, she said some powerful strong things. She thought I wasn't acting right toward you, and told me so to my face. I went on with my plans, but I've often thought of her advice. You may have noticed that I hain't talked as much about the--the monument as I did, and I haven't been to see it as often as I used to. Dixie Hart made me look at it from the outside to some extent, and with that I began to be more considerate of you. I saw you wasn't the same as you was at first--I might say, as you was all along when you and Dick was both taking me out, and as you was--for that matter--just before and after me and you got married. In fact, Alfred, you are getting to be a sort o' puzzle to me. Even to-night at supper you seemed to be in some sort of far-off dream or other. You'd lift up a fork or a spoon and hold it a long time before you'd put it in your mouth, and once I caught you gazing straight at me with the blankest look I ever saw on a human face. You don't seem the same. I don't mean that you haven't got a _healthy_ look, for that would bother me a lot, but you are--well, you are just different."
"Don't you worry," Henley heard himself saying, aghast at the cliffs and chasms ahead of him. "Don't worry about me if I seem to have my mind off at times. I've made some trades lately, and got the best end of 'em. I'm a natural trader--a born trader, Hettie. They say it is like a mild form of gambling. Just yesterday I made a deal with an old chap--"
"I don't want to talk about trading and swapping, and the like," the woman broke in, firmly. "Besides, no sort of ordinary business ever made a man look like you've looked lately. You used to be sorter active and nervous, but now you set and brood with an odd, reddish look on your face. It ain't natural. It looks like you've resigned yourself to--to something that you didn't exactly like before, and it don't please me to see you that way. Pa's noticed it and mentioned it two or three times."