I should be surprised if you wanted to. I can't see exactly why. But that's none of my busi-ness. You ought to do as you please. Certainly you ought not to pay any attention to what the boys say."Alexandra sighed. "I had hoped you might understand, a little, why I do want to. But Isuppose that's too much to expect. I've had a pretty lonely life, Emil. Besides Marie, Carl is the only friend I have ever had."Emil was awake now; a name in her last sen-tence roused him. He put out his hand and took his sister's awkwardly. "You ought to do just as you wish, and I think Carl's a fine fel-low. He and I would always get on. I don't believe any of the things the boys say about him, honest I don't. They are suspicious of him because he's intelligent. You know their way.
They've been sore at me ever since you let me go away to college. They're always trying to catch me up. If I were you, I wouldn't pay any attention to them. There's nothing to get upset about. Carl's a sensible fellow. He won't mind them.""I don't know. If they talk to him the way they did to me, I think he'll go away."Emil grew more and more uneasy. "Think so? Well, Marie said it would serve us all right if you walked off with him.""Did she? Bless her little heart! SHE would."Alexandra's voice broke.
Emil began unlacing his leggings. "Why don't you talk to her about it? There's Carl, Ihear his horse. I guess I'll go upstairs and get my boots off. No, I don't want any supper. We had supper at five o'clock, at the fair."Emil was glad to escape and get to his own room. He was a little ashamed for his sister, though he had tried not to show it. He felt that there was something indecorous in her proposal, and she did seem to him somewhat ridiculous. There was trouble enough in the world, he reflected, as he threw himself upon his bed, without people who were forty years old imagining they wanted to get married. In the darkness and silence Emil was not likely to think long about Alexandra. Every image slipped away but one. He had seen Marie in the crowd that afternoon. She sold candy at the fair. WHY had she ever run away with Frank Shabata, and how could she go on laughing and working and taking an interest in things? Why did she like so many people, and why had she seemed pleased when all the French and Bohe-mian boys, and the priest himself, crowded round her candy stand? Why did she care about any one but him? Why could he never, never find the thing he looked for in her playful, affectionate eyes?