time till we had it settled right as it should be.  But a son—­my son—­why, look at the chest on him already, projecting outward like a clock shelf—­and you would name him—­but no matter!  I was forehanded, thank God.’  Oh, you saw plainly that in case a girl ever come along Ellabelle would have the privilege of naming it anything in the world she wanted to that Angus thought suitable.

“So that was settled reasonably, and Angus went on showing what to do with your mine instead of selling it to a shark, and the baby fatted up, being stall-fed, and Ellabelle got out into the world again, with more money than ever to spend, but fewer things to buy, because in Wallace she couldn’t think of any more.  Trust her, though!  First the International Hotel wasn’t good enough.  Angus said they’d have a mansion, the biggest in Wallace, only without slippery hardwood floors, because he felt brittle after his accident.  Ellabelle says Wallace itself ain’t big enough for the mansion that ought to be a home to his only son.  She was learning how to get to Angus without seeming to.  He thought there might be something in that, still he didn’t like to trust the child away from him, and he had to stick there for a while.

“So Ellabelle’s health broke down.  Yes, sir, she got to be a total wreck.  Of course the fool doctor in Wallace couldn’t find it out.  She tried him and he told her she was strong as a horse and ought to be doing a tub of washing that very minute.  Which was no way to talk to the wife of a rich mining man, so he lost quite a piece of money by it.  Ellabelle then went to Spokane and consulted a specialist.  That’s the difference.  You only see a doctor, but a specialist you consult.  This one confirmed her fears about herself in a very gentlemanly way and reaped his reward on the spot.  Ellabelle’s came after she had convinced Angus that even if she did have such a good appetite it wasn’t a normal one, but it was, in fact, one of her worst symptoms and threatened her with a complete nervous breakdown.  After about a year of this, when Angus had horned his way into a few more mines—­he said he might as well have a bunch of them since he couldn’t be there on the spot anyway—­they went to New York City.  Angus had never been there except to pass from a Clyde liner to Jersey City, and they do say that when he heard the rates, exclusive of board, at the one Ellabelle had picked out from reading the papers, he timidly asked her if they hadn’t ought to go to the other hotel.  She told him there wasn’t any other—­not for them.  She told him further it was part of her mission to broaden his horizon, and she firmly meant to do it if God would only vouchsafe her a remnant of her once magnificent vitality.