Skinny had excused himself, ostensibly to attend
to some ranch chores, but in reality to get away to the bunk-house and
"fix up" for the day's courtship of Carolyn June. He planned, when the
cowboys were gone, to put on the white shirt Parker brought, yesterday,
from Eagle Butte.
"Ophelia," Carolyn June said mysteriously as they stepped out on the
front porch and filled their lungs with the clean air of the morning,
"you made a 'discovery' yesterday, I believe?" pausing questioningly.
"Yes," the widow smiled, recalling their conversation relative to
Parker's abrupt proposal of marriage.
"To-day," Carolyn June continued impressively, "it is my turn--I have
made one!"
"And it is?"
"You and I have been 'framed!'" was the answer spoken solemnly yet
scarcely louder than a whisper, while the brown eyes of Carolyn June
sparkled with a mixture of suppressed anger, merriment and indignation.
"Framed?" the widow repeated inquiringly, "just what does 'framed' mean,
my dear?"
"Framed means," Carolyn June replied wisely, "'tricked,' 'jobbed,'
'jinxed,' 'fixed,' or whatever it is people do to people when they
scheme to do something to them without the ones to whom they are doing
it knowing how it is done!"
"Exceedingly lucid, my love," the widow laughed, "but you are so
agonizingly fond of suspense--"
"Come inside," Carolyn June said as she led the way into the house, "and
in a dark corner--no, that would be too near to the walls and their
proverbial 'ears,' in the center of the room is better--I will expose
the whole diabolical plot!"
At the end of the reading table they stopped and faced each other.
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