“It is to it I would bear you as my bride. Come with me! Be mine! I cannot offer you the enervating luxuries of the depraved and decaying East, but together we can feast upon jerked beef and buffalo tongues; together we can drink draughts from the Artesian well in the cellar; together we will sit beneath the tree by the front door, the only one within twenty-seven miles, and together we can watch the dog chasing the jackass-rabbits across the sage brush. Be mine, and I will stock the pantry with rations from the nearest Indian agency, where I have a friend; I will buy you a suave and gentle mule for you to exercise yourself on, and you may have canvas enough to paint General Washingtons and Lord Cornwallises as high as church steeples, and I will guarantee that Congress shall bid them in as fast as you turn them out. Will you, Pandora? Do you like the promise? Oh, say that you love me!”
“Mr. Smith, I cannot. I am very sorry, but to tell the truth plainly, I am engaged to another gentleman.”
“But I know him! A one-legged Major! And you refuse me for him?”
“Oh, very well, Miss M’Duffy. I understand you. I will bid you a very good evening. I hope you will not have occasion to regret your decision.”
“Certainly I shall not! Good evening, sir!”
As Achilles passed out through the hall he encountered Major Dunwoody, who was just placing his hat upon the rack. Achilles looked back at him for a second, scowling with rage and mortification, and then as he rushed into the open air, he said to himself,--
“Never mind, you hopping, mud-headed, military humbug. I’ll settle _your_ case before you’re many days older.”
Pandora greeted the Major with a joyful smile.
“Darling,” said the Major, “who was that person I passed in the hall as I came in?”
“That was Achilles Smith, the man of whom I told you. He proposed to me a few moments before you came in.”
“He did, did he?” exclaimed the Major savagely. “I wish I had known it. I would have kicked him down the steps.”
“But how could you, dearest, with only one leg?”
“True!” said the Major. “But I could have thrashed him with my cane. So he wants to marry you, does he?”
“Yes, and mother thinks I ought to accept him.”
“And you have firmly made up your mind to marry me?” asked the Major, fondly.