There were many ways, and with her knowledge of this her contempt for the man increased.As she leaned her head on her hand, a fleeting vision of her own girlhood, with its mournful climacteric and tragic ebb, was vouchsafed her, and for the moment she was minded to read him a lesson from it.God! it must be less than human brute who could not be held by such a tale, told as she could tell it, but--bah! He was not worth it, nor worth the pain to her.The candle was positioned just right, and even as she thought of these things sacredly shameful to her, he was pleasuring in the transparent pinkiness of her ear.She noted his eye, took the cue, and turned her head till the clean profile of the face was presented.Not the least was that profile among her virtues.She could not help the lines upon which she had been builded, and they were very good; but she had long since learned those lines, and though little they needed, was not above advantaging them to the best of her ability.The candle began to flicker.She could not do anything ungracefully, but that did not prevent her improving upon nature a bit, when she reached forth and deftly snuffed the red wick from the midst of the yellow flame.Again she rested head on hand, this time regarding the man thoughtfully, and any man is pleased when thus regarded by a pretty woman.
She was in little haste to begin.If dalliance were to his liking, it was to hers.To him it was very comfortable, soothing his lungs with nicotine and gazing upon her.It was snug and warm here, while down by the water-hole began a trail which he would soon be hitting through the chilly hours.He felt he ought to be angry with Freda for the scene she had created, but somehow he didn't feel a bit wrathful.Like as not there wouldn't have been any scene if it hadn't been for that McFee woman.If he were the Governor, he would put a poll tax of a hundred ounces a quarter upon her and her kind and all gospel sharks and sky pilots.And certainly Freda had behaved very ladylike, held her own with Mrs.
Eppingwell besides.Never gave the girl credit for the grit.He looked lingeringly over her, coming back now and again to the eyes, behind the deep earnestness of which he could not guess lay concealed a deeper sneer.And, Jove, wasn't she well put up!
Wonder why she looked at him so? Did she want to marry him, too?
Like as not; but she wasn't the only one.Her looks were in her favor, weren't they? And young--younger than Loraine Lisznayi.
She couldn't be more than twenty-three or four, twenty-five at most.And she'd never get stout.Anybody could guess that the first time.He couldn't say it of Loraine, though.SHE certainly had put on flesh since the day she served as model.Huh! once he got her on trail he'd take it off.Put her on the snowshoes to break ahead of the dogs.Never knew it to fail, yet.But his thought leaped ahead to the palace under the lazy Mediterranean sky--and how would it be with Loraine then? No frost, no trail, no famine now and again to cheer the monotony, and she getting older and piling it on with every sunrise.While this girl Freda--he sighed his unconscious regret that he had missed being born under the flag of the Turk, and came back to Alaska.
"Well?" Both hands of the clock pointed perpendicularly to midnight, and it was high time he was getting down to the water-hole.
"Oh!" Freda started, and she did it prettily, delighting him as his fellows have ever been delighted by their womankind.When a man is made to believe that a woman, looking upon him thoughtfully, has lost herself in meditation over him, that man needs be an extremely cold-blooded individual in order to trim his sheets, set a lookout, and steer clear.
"I was just wondering what you wanted to see me about," he explained, drawing his chair up to hers by the table.
"Floyd," she looked him steadily in the eyes, "I am tired of the whole business.I want to go away.I can't live it out here till the river breaks.If I try, I'll die.I am sure of it.I want to quit it all and go away, and I want to do it at once."She laid her hand in mute appeal upon the back of his, which turned over and became a prison.Another one, he thought, just throwing herself at him.Guess it wouldn't hurt Loraine to cool her feet by the water-hole a little longer.
"Well?" This time from Freda, but softly and anxiously.
"I don't know what to say," he hastened to answer, adding to himself that it was coming along quicker than he had expected.
"Nothing I'd like better, Freda.You know that well enough." He pressed her hand, palm to palm.She nodded.Could she wonder that she despised the breed?
"But you see, I--I'm engaged.Of course you know that.And the girl's coming into the country to marry me.Don't know what was up with me when I asked her, but it was a long while back, and Iwas all-fired young--""I want to go away, out of the land, anywhere," she went on, disregarding the obstacle he had reared up and apologized for."Ihave been running over the men I know and reached the conclusion that--that--""I was the likeliest of the lot?"She smiled her gratitude for his having saved her the embarrassment of confession.He drew her head against his shoulder with the free hand, and somehow the scent of her hair got into his nostrils.Then he discovered that a common pulse throbbed, throbbed, throbbed, where their palms were in contact.