Part 2 (2/2)
He felt that he had sufficiently performed his duty He left the tent, and paused for a moment outside to touzle affectionately the tra He had gone a dozen steps when a low voice stopped him He turned Joanne had come frohe had ever seen had risen before hiirl was bareheaded, and she stood in a sun mellowed by a filold-brown hair that her hat and veil had hidden Never had he looked upon such wonderful hair, crushed and crumpled back from her smooth forehead; nor such marvellous whiteness of skin and pure blue depths of eyes! In her he sa everything that was strong and splendid in woirl She was a wo out of her eyes, a strength that thrilled him in the quiet and beautiful ood-bye,” she said ”Won't you let ht hiain A moment he bent over her hand A moment he felt its warm, firm pressure in his own The smile that flashed to his lips was hidden froray head
”Pardon ood luck go with you!”
Their eyes met oncehis way At the door Joanne Gray looked back He histling again His careless, easy stride was filled with a freedom that seemed to come to her in the breath of the ely as she reentered the tent
CHAPTER III
If John Aldous had betrayed no visible sign of inward vanquishs had et for a world of woarded with indifferent toleration The woave spice to his great adventure, andbut monotonous He was not unchivalrous Deep down in his heart--and this was his own secret--he did not even despise women But he had seen their weaknesses and their frailties as perhaps no other man had ever seen them, and he had written of theht him the condemnation of the host, the adainst wouessed it He had built it up about him as a sort of protection He called himself ”an adventurer in the ued that he must destroy in himself the usual heart-emotions of the sex-man and the animal
How far he had succeeded in this he hiood-bye to Joanne Gray He confessed that she had found a cleft in his armour, and there was an uneasy thrill in his blood
It was not her beauty alone that had affected him He had trained hiht have looked at a beautiful flower, confident that if he went beyond the mere admiration of it he would find only burned-out ashes But in her he had seen so that for a flashi+ngHe had felt the desire to rest his hand upon her shi+ning hair!
He turned off into a winding path that led into the thick poplars, restraining an inclination to look back in the direction of the Otto camp
He pulled out the pipe he had dropped into his shi+rt pocket, filled it with fresh tobacco, and began s As he smoked, his lips wore a quizzical sive Joanne Gray credit for her triumph
She had awakened a new kind of interest in hi interest, to be sure--but a new kind for all that The fact a it, and he fully appreciated the humour of the present situation--that he, John Aldous, touted the world over as a woe and see that wonderful gold-brown head shi+ning in the sun oncewith fresh interest what his friends, the women, would say when they read his new book His title for it was ”Mothers” It was to be a tremendous surprise
Suddenly his face becaraph It was not the phonograph in Quade's place, but that of a rival dealer in soft drinks at the end of the ”street” For a moment Aldous hesitated Then he turned in the direction of the caainst the thin partition, when John Aldous sauntered in There was still a groggy look in hisa bit li by watery pouches of sin and dissipation, there was a vengeful and beastlike glare He was surrounded by his friends One of the a wet cloth from his head There were a dozen in the canvas-walled room, all with their backs to the door, their eyes upon their fallen and dishonoured chief For a moment John Aldous paused in the door The cool and insolent sathered at the corners of his eyes
”Did I hit you pretty hard, Bill?” he asked
Every head was turned toward hiered to his feet, and stood dizzily
”You--damn you!” he cried huskily
Three or four of the er
Their hands were knotted, their faces murderously dark
”Wait ato say to you--and Bill Then eat ive me a word?”
Quade had settled back sickly on his stool The others had stopped, waiting The quiet and insolently confident smile had not left Aldous'
lips
”You'll feel better in a few minutes, Bill,” he consoled ”A hard blow on the jaays makes you sick at the pit of the stomach That dizziness will pass away shortly Meanwhile, I'ive you and your pals a little verbal and visual deainst, and warn you to bait no traps for a certain young wo on to Tete Jaune And I kno your partner plays his game up there I'm not particularly anxious to butt into your affairs and the business of this pretty bunch that's gathered about you, but I've co wo to settle with me”
Aldous had spoken without a tremor of excite lips, his slim hands, or his careless posture as he leaned in the door They were looking straight into his eyes, strangely scintillating and deadly earnest In such a man mere bulk did not count