"Lucy," he said, "that crop doesn't look by any means as hard to reap as it did an hour ago."
"I guess it's the supper," Lucy suggested cheerfully.
"I don't think it's that exactly, though there's no doubt it's the best meal I've had for a considerable time."
"Well," she observed, "it's company you want, and it's quite nice being here. You and I kind of hit it, don't we, Mavy?"
"Of course. We always did," Thorne assented, though there was a hint of astonishment in his tone.
"Then if you'll get rid of Hall--send him off again for something--I'll get supper for you the next two or three evenings."
"I don't see why he should be done out of his share," protested Thorne cautiously. He felt that Lucy was more gracious than there was any occasion for.
"Don't you, Mavy?" she asked, with lifted brows. "Now, I've a notion that anybody else would kind of spoil things."
Until lately Thorne had seldom shrunk from any harmless gallantry, but he did not respond just then with the readiness which the girl seemed to expect.
"It's a relief to hear you say it," he declared. "I'm afraid I'm a dull companion to-night."
"Well," she replied, "I have seen you brighter, but you're anxious and played out. Sit nice and still for half an hour while I talk to you."
"I ought to be stooking those sheaves," Thorne answered dubiously.
"You can do it by and by," Lucy urged. "It won't be dark for quite a while yet."
She adroitly led him on to talk, and presently bade him light his pipe. He had always hated any unnecessary reserve and ceremony, and by degrees his natural gaiety once more asserted itself. At length, when they were both laughing over a narrative of his, he stretched his arm out across the table and it happened by merest accident that their hands met. Lucy did not draw hers away; she looked up at him with a smile.
"Mavy," she teased, "I wonder what Miss Leigh would say if she could see you."
Thorne straightened himself somewhat hastily in his chair. Nothing in the shape of a tactful answer occurred to him, and he grew uneasy under his companion's smile.
"Would you like to see her walk right in just now?" she persisted.
There was no doubt that this would not have afforded the man the slightest pleasure, but he could not admit it.
