Part 19 (2/2)
he suggested.
The dark, silken lashes of her eyes lifted shyly to meet his.
”Perhaps,” she said.
CHAPTER XIII
DIANE AND GORDON DIFFER
During the absence of Macdonald the field agent saw less of Sheba than he had expected, and when he did see her she had an abstracted manner he did not quite understand. She kept to her own room a good deal, except when she took long walks into the hills back of the town. Diane had a shrewd idea that the Alaskan had put his fortune to the test, and she not only let her cousin alone herself, but fended Gordon from her adroitly.
The third day after the dinner Elliot dropped around to the Pagets with intent to get Sheba into a set of tennis. Diane sat on the porch darning socks.
”Sheba is out walking with Mr. Macdonald,” she explained in answer to a question as to the whereabouts of her guest.
”Oh, he's back, is he?” remarked Gordon moodily.
Mrs. Paget was quite cheerful on that subject. ”He came back this morning. Sheba has gone up with him to see the Lucky Strike.”
”You're going to marry her to that man if you can, aren't you?” he charged.
”If I can, Gordon.” She slipped a darning-ball into one of little Peter's stockings and placidly trimmed the edges of the hole.
”It's what I call a conspiracy.”
”Is it?” Diane smiled.
Gordon understood her smile to mean that he was jealous.
”Maybe I am. That's not the point,” he answered, just as if she had made her accusation in words.
”Suppose you tell me what the point is,” she suggested, both amused and annoyed.
”He isn't good enough for her. You know that perfectly well.”
”Good enough!” She shrugged her shoulders. ”What man _is_ good enough for a nice girl if you come to that? There are other things beside sugary goodness. Any man who is strong can make himself good enough for the woman he loves.”
”Generally speaking, yes. But Colby Macdonald is different.”
”Thank Heaven he is,” she retorted impatiently. Then added after a moment: ”He isn't a Sunday-School superintendent if that's what you mean.”
”That isn't what I mean at all. But there's such a thing as a difference between right and wrong, isn't there?”
”Oh, yes. For instance, Mr. Macdonald is right about the need of developing Alaska and the way to do it, and you are wrong.”
He could not help smiling a little at the adroit way she tried to sidetrack him, even though he was angry at her. But he had no intention of letting her go without freeing his mind.
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