Although they were five days old--six, some of them--these divers
battle-signs were perfectly visible, not to say conspicuous; so that
Kate Mason was perhaps justified in her perfectly apparent diffidence in
looking at him. So do we turn our eyes self-consciously away from a
cripple, lest we give offense by gazing upon his misfortune.
"_I_ can't carry her, and she can't walk--her ankle is sprained
dreadfully. So if you'll bring her back to the house, I'll be ever so
much--"
"Certainly; I'll bring her back right away." Ford came down the stairs
so swiftly that she retreated in haste before him, and once down he did
not linger; indeed, he almost ran from the house and from her
embarrassed gratitude. On the way to the bunk-house it occurred to him
that it might be no easy matter, now, for Mason to conceal Ford's
identity and his sins. From the way in which she had stared wincingly at
his battered countenance, he realized that she did, indeed, have ideals.
Ford grinned to himself, wondering if Ches didn't have to do his smoking
altogether in the bunk-house; he judged her to be just the woman to wage
a war on tobacco, and swearing, and muddy boots, and drinking out of
one's saucer, and all other weaknesses peculiar to the male of our
species.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112