Her Prairie Knight
was an auspicious time and place to ask Beatrice to marry him. He had tried so many times and places that seemed auspicious, that the man was growing fearful. It is not pleasant to have a girl smile indulgently upon you and deftly turn your avowals aside, so that they fall flat.
"I'm ready," she announced, blind to what his eyes were saying.
"Shall we trek?" Sir Redmond sighed a bit. He was not anxious to overtake the others.
"We will. Only, out here people never 'trek,' Sir Redmond. They 'hit the trail.'"
"So they do. And the way these cowboys do it, one would think they were couriers, by Jove! with the lives of a whole army at stake. So I fancy we had better hit the trail, eh?"
"You're learning," Beatrice assured him, as they started on. "A year out here, and you would be a real American, Sir Redmond."
Sir Redmond came near saying, "The Lord forbid!" but he thought better of it. Beatrice was intensely loyal to her countrymen, unfortunately, and would certainly resent such a remark; but, for all that, he thought it.
For a mile or two she held to her resolve, and
89
