Part 28 (2/2)
Poleon waited patiently until her paroxysently raised her and led her out through the back door into the su and was now so gray and dismal He followed her with his eyes until she disappeared inside the log-house
”An' dat's de end of it all,” he mused ”Five year I've wait--an' jus'
for dis”
Meade Burrell never kne he gained his quarters, but when he had done so he locked his door behind hied about the room like a wild ani that lay within reach His voice was strange in his own ears, as was the destructive frenzy that possessed hiy of this brutal impulse spent itself; but there carasped but dully the fact that she was to ht in turn took possession of hi, brown man would fold her to himself--she would yield to hiht drove the lover frantic, and he felt thatOf a sudden he realized all that she meant to him, and cursed himself anew While he had the power to possess her he had dallied and hesitated, but now that he had no voice in it, now that she was irretrievably beyond his reach, he vowed to snatch her and hold her against the world
As he grew calan to dissect the scene that had taken place in the store, and he wondered whether she had been lying to hied to the Frenchman, and had always planned to wed Poleon, for that was not out of reason; she ht even have set out mischievously to amuse herself with him, but at the recollection of those rapturous hours they had spent together, he declared aloud that she had loved him, and him only Every instinct in him shouted that she loved him, in spite of her cruel protestations
All that afternoon he stayed locked in his roo those solitary hours he came to know his own soul He sahat life meant: what part love plays in it, hoarfed and withered all things are when pitted against it
A one The night settled slowly, and with the darkness cahted every laloom that had fallen upon hi froht to darkness a subtle transition occurs akin to the change froative in an electrical current, and that this intangible, untraceable atmospheric influence exerts a definite, psychical effect upon ht Be this as it rew darker the Lieutenant's irl, and reasoned that he owed it to her to set hiht to prove his own sincerity, and assure her that whatever her own state of ed him when she said he had ht then dise, but first she ued, insensible to the sophistry of his reasoning, which was in reality iain He snatched his hat and bolted out, alerness
An up-river steahter, as he noted by her lights In the glare at the river-bank he saw Poleon and the trader, who had evidently returned fro the in from the darkness, he saw Alluna; no doubt Necia was alone in the house behind So he stulow behind its curtain, and, receiving no answer to his knock, he entered, for it was custo room he paused, then stepped swiftly across and rapped at her door, falling back a pace as she ca at once, as he had planned, to prevent her escaping, he was struck speechless, for the vision thatht there was no shawl to conceal her sweetly rounded neck and shoulders, whose whiteness was startling against the black of the ball-roo around her neck and her hair was piled high, as before He noted every s for hi else
She had put on the gown again to see if, perchance, there ht be some mark of her blood or breed that had escaped her previous scrutiny, and, as there was no one to observe her, she had attired herself slowly, absorbed in her whi man and robbed him of the words he had rehearsed; but as she esture, towards her roo her aroused hi I ot to listen, Necia”
”I a,” she answered, very quietly
”Understandto take ht this afternoon, but you rong”
”Yes, I knoas wrong It was most unlady-like, wasn't it? But you see, I ae”
”I don'twhen you said I had played with you In the sight of God, I swear you were mistaken You have n
”If you can't, I owe it to you and to e my love, and even when you are married to Poleon I want you to know that I shall love you always”
Even yet shethe sauiled her? There was no word of e: he still considered her unworthy, beneath hiirl to wince suddenly, and her sensitive face flinched, seeing which he broke out:
”You do love me, Necia--you do; I see it in your eyes!” And he started towards her with open arms, but she shrank away from him
”No, no! Don't touch me!” she almost screamed
”My dear one,” he breathed, ”youto fear, for I love you--love you--love you! You were made for me! You'll be my wife Yes; you'll be married on Sunday, but to ht? Was he, her soldier lover, asking her, the Indian girl--?
”You do love me, don't you?” he pleaded But still she could not speak, and he tried to read the answer in her swi eyes
”You mean--you want to-- shyly at the word that had come to play so momentous a part in her little world
”Indeed I do!” he declared, with e else matters”