Poor Miss Mattie was confused.  “It’s too bad of you, Will, to put such a meaning on my words,” she said.

“The strange part of it is,” spoke the young man, seeing an opportunity for a joke, and to deal courteously with his entertainers at the same time.  “The peculiar fact is, that my name is Lettis.”

“Lettuce?” cried Red.  “Mattie, I apologise—­he is a vegetable.”

At which they all laughed again.

“And now,” said Red, “I’m Red Saunders, late of the Chantay Seeche Ranch, Territory of Dakota—­State of North Dakota, I mean, can’t get used to the State business; there’s a Bill and a Dick on this side of me and two Johns and a Sammy on the other.  Foot of the table is Miss Mattie Saunders, next to her—­just as they run—­Miss Pauline Doolittle and Miss Mary Ann Demilt, who may be kin to the gentleman you’re seeking.”

“Mr. Thomas F. Demilt?” asked the stranger.

“He’s my sister,” responded Miss Mary Ann.  Whereat the youths buried their faces in the plates, as Mr. Thomas F., in spite of many excellent qualities, bore a pathetic resemblance to the title.

“I mean,” continued the lady hurriedly, “that I’m his brother.”

“By Jimmy, ma’am!” exclaimed Red.  “But yours is a strange family!”

“What Miss Demilt wishes to say,” cut in Miss Doolittle with some asperity, “is that Mr. Thomas Faulkenstone Demilt is her brother.”  She did not add, as extreme candour would have urged, “And I have some hope—­remote, alas! but there—­of becoming sister to Miss Demilt myself.”

“Thank you!” said Lettis.  “Shall I be able to see him this afternoon?”

“Oh, mercy, yes!” said Miss Mary Ann.  “Tom is home all day.”

“I can thank the kind fates for that,” said Lettis.  “I had begun to think he was a myth,” and he fell in upon the tender meat with the vigorous appetite of youth and a good digestion.

Nathaniel Lettis was by no means a fool, and he had experience in business, but the mainspring of the young fellow was frankness, and in the course of the dinner he told his errand.  Mr. Demilt had written to his firm explaining the advantages of starting a straw-board factory in Fairfield.  It was too small a thing for the firm to be interested in, but Lettis had a small capital which he wished to invest in an enterprise of his own handling, and it had struck him that there might be a chance for independence; therefore he had come to find out the lay of the land.

* * * * *

Red Saunders’ first-glance liking of the stranger deepened as he told of his business.  The cowman did not blame people who took devious ways and dealt in ambiguities, for his experience in the world, which was pretty fairly complete, had told him that craft was a necessity for weak natures; nevertheless he cared not for those who used it.