"And Seldon would do something very handsome for Max if he married to suit him," Haydon was saying, thoughtfully. "Seldon has no children, you know, and if this girl was sent to school for a while, I think it would come out all right--all right. I would take a personal interest to the extent of talking to Seldon of it. He will think it a queer place for Max to come for a wife; but when--when I talk to him, he will agree. Yes, I can promise it will be all right."
"What are you talking of?" demanded Overton, blankly. He had not heard one-half of a very carefully worded idea of Mr. Haydon's. "Max married! To whom?"
"You are not a very flattering listener," remarked the other, dryly, "and don't show much interest in the love affairs of your _protégeé_; but it was of her I was speaking."
"You--you would try to marry her to Max Lyster--marry her!" and his voice sounded in his own ears as strange and far away.
"Well, it is not an unusual prophecy to make of a young girl, is it?" asked Mr. Haydon, with an attempt to be jocular. "And I don't know where she could find a better young fellow. From his discourses concerning her on our journey here and his evident devotion since our arrival, I fancy the idea is not so new to him as it seems to be to you, Mr. Overton."
"Nonsense! when she is well, they quarrel as often as they agree--oftener."
"That is no proof that he is not in love with her--and why not? She is a pretty girl, a bright girl, he says, and of good people--"
"He knows nothing about her people," interrupted Overton.
"I know all it has been necessary for me to know," and, in spite of himself, he could not speak of 'Tana to this man without a feeling of anger at his persistence. "But I can't help being rather surprised, Mr. Haydon, that you should so quickly agree that a wise thing for your partner's nephew to do is to turn from all the cultured, intelligent girls he must know, and look for a wife among the mining camps of the Kootenai hills. And, considering the fact that you approve of it, without ever having heard her speak, without knowing in the least who or what her family have been--I must say it is an extraordinarily impulsive thing for a man of your reputation to do--a cool-headed, conservative business man."