"No, father; it's only gratitude."

"Gratitude!" The judge snorted scornfully. "Girls don't do as much as
she's done for him out of gratitude. _Look_ what she's doing; not only
running the 'Herald' for him, but making it a daily, and a good daily at
that. First time I saw her I knew right away she was the smartest girl I
ever laid eyes on;--I expect she must have got it from her mother.
Gratitude! Pooh! Look how she's studied his interests, and watched like a
cat for chances for him in everything. Didn't she get him into Eph Watts's
company? She talked to Watts and the other fellows, day after day, and
drove around their leased land with 'em, and studied it up, and got on the
inside, and made him buy. Now, if they strike it--and she's sure they
will, and _I_'m sure she knows when to have faith in a thing--why, they'll
sell out to the Standard, and they can all quit work for the rest of their
lives if they want to; and Harkless gets as much as any without lifting a
finger, all because he had a little money--mighty little, too--laid up in
bank and a girl that saw where to put it. She did that for him, didn't
she?"

"Don't you see what fun it's been for her?" returned Minnie. "She's been
having the best time she ever had; I never knew any one half so happy."

"Yes; she went up and saw him at that party, and she knows he's still
thinking about her. I shouldn't be surprised if he asked her then, and
that's what makes her so gay."

"Well, she couldn't have said 'yes,' because he went back to his bed the
next day, and he's been there most of the time since."