Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/292

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wanted to write a letter to her sweetheart, she heaved a brick at him."

"George! You ignoramus!" she rebuked. "Don't get funny, now. Those ruins are wasting away with every rain, being pillaged by every ignorant, roaming brigand. Precious knowledge may be lost to the world at any moment. Think how fine it would be for George Judson, the automobile manufacturer, to organize and lead a party up the valley of those two ancient rivers on the banks of which civilization was born—take a professor or two along, of course, to direct the excavations and read inscriptions. It would be such a lark, and besides it would be in the interest of science!"

"Science! Gosh, oh, gosh!" exploded George, who had restrained his impatience to the limit while he listened. "Say! Are you getting nutty? Are your I want to know." He seized her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "You'd better see a doctor," he decided. "You had—really."

Fay was naturally indignant at such irreverent scoffing at the dearest project she had conceived for a long, long time. "That's the way you always receive every suggestion I make—you—you stupid, old business drudge!" she reproached. "You haven't got a bit of interest in science!" Her tone of accusation was weepy.