"Dan?" and he laughed at the idea, "well, no. He is very kind to women, but I can't imagine the sort of woman he would marry. He is a queer fish, you know."
"I guess you'll think we're all that up in this wild country," she observed. "Does he know much about books and such things?"
"Oh, you know! things of the life in the cities, where there's music and theaters. I love the theaters and pictures! and--and--well, everything like that."
Lyster watched her brightening face, and appreciated all the longing in it for the things he liked well himself. And she loved the theaters! All his own boyish enthusiasm of years ago crowded into his memory, as he looked at her.
"You have seen plays, then?" he asked, and wondered where she had seen them along that British Columbia line.
"Seen plays! Yes, in 'Frisco, and Portland, and Victoria--big, real theaters, you know; and then others in the big mining camps. Oh, I just dream over plays, when I do see them, specially when the actresses are pretty. But I mostly like the villains better than the heroes. Don't know why, but I do."
"What! you like to see their wickedness prosper?"
"No--I think not," she said, doubtfully. "But I tell you, the heroes are generally just too good to be live men, that's all. And the villain mostly talks more natural, gets mad, you know, and breaks things, and rides over the lay-out as though he had some nerve in him. Of course, they always make him throw up his hands in the end, and every man in the audience applauds--even the ones who would act just as he does if such a pretty hero was in their way."
"Well, you certainly have peculiar ideas of theatrical personages--for a young lady," decided Lyster, laughing. "And why you have a grievance against the orthodox handsome hero, I can't see."
"He's too good," she insisted, with the little frown appearing between her brows, "and no one is ever started in the play with a fair chance against him. He is always called Willie, where the villain would be called Bill--now, isn't he? Then the girl in the story always falls in love with him at first sight, and that's enough to rile any villain, especially when he wants her himself."
"Oh!" and the face of the young man was a study, as he inspected this wonderful ward of Dan. Whatever he had expected from the young swimmer of the Kootenai, from the welcomed guest of Akkomi, he had not expected this sort of thing.