_I_ don't want to take advantage of her
gratitude, as she seems determined I shall do.
"You must think me a very strained, sentimental creature," she said to me
the last time, "to care so much for a few old rocks and a little piece of
foamy water."
I didn't think so at all, I told her. If I had lived there all my life, I
should feel about the place just as she did.
Here she began to blush and distress herself. "But think how kind you have
all been to me! Mr. Harshaw was here every day, after he found how ill poor
Tamar was. He did so many things: he lifted her, for one thing, and that
I couldn't have done to save her life. And your two visits have simply
cured her! And here I am making myself a stumbling-block and ruining your
husband's plans!"
I said he was quite capable of taking care of himself.
"Does your husband want _all_ the water?" she persisted. "Do I understand
that he must have it all?"
I supposed she was talking of the Snow Bank, and since she was determined
we should discuss the affair in this social way, I said he would have
to have a great deal; and I told her about the distance the power would
have to be sent, and about the mines and the smelters, and all the rest
of it, for it was no use to belittle the scheme.
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