Part 7 (1/2)

”It's supposed to be a very natural one in the case of a man,” said Laura. ”You can smoke if you like. I want to talk to you.”

Nasmyth stretched himself out on the other side of the fire, and Laura, leaning forward a little, looked at him. Without knowing exactly why, he felt somewhat uneasy beneath her gaze.

”Now,” she said, ”I would like to hear what you are going to do.”

The man made a little rueful gesture. ”I don't know. Chop trees again for some rancher, most probably--in fact, I was wondering whether you would have me back as a ranch-hand.”

”Ah!” cried the girl sharply, while a trace of hardness crept into her eyes, ”that is very much what I expected. As it happens, I am far from satisfied with the man we have, but I should not think of replacing him with you just now.”

Nasmyth winced, and it was characteristic of him that he endeavoured to beguile her away from the object she evidently had in view.

”What's the matter with the man?” he asked.

”A diversity of gifts. Among other things, he appears to possess an extensive acquaintance with Colonial politics, and he and my father discuss the regeneration of the Government when they might with advantage be doing something else.”

Nasmyth frowned. ”I understand. That's one reason why I wanted to come back. After all, there is a good deal I could save you from. In fact, I get savage now and then when I think of what you are probably being left to do upon the ranch. I ventured a hint or two to your father, but he seemed impervious.” He hesitated for a moment. ”No doubt it's a delicate subject, but it's a little difficult quietly to contemplate the fact that, while those men talk politics, you--”

”I do their work?” suggested Laura with a lifting of her arched eyebrows. ”After all, isn't that or something like it what generally happens when men turn their backs upon their task?”

Nasmyth flushed. ”I admit that I was trying to break away from mine, but it seems you have undertaken to head me off and drive me back to it again.”

”That was more or less what I wished,” said Laura quietly.

”Well,” Nasmyth replied, ”as I think you're a little hard on me, I'll try to put my views before you. To begin with, the dam is done for.”

”You are quite sure? You built it so far once. Is it altogether out of the question for you to do as much again?”

Nasmyth felt his face grow hot. She was looking at him with quiet eyes, which had, however, the faintest suggestion of disdain in them.

”The question is why I should want to do it,” he said.

”Ah!” rejoined Laura, ”you have no aspirations at all? Still, I'm not quite sure that is exactly what I mean--in fact, I think I mean considerably more. You are quite content to throw away your birthright, and relinquish all claim to the station you were born in?”

The man smiled somewhat bitterly. ”I think you understand that it's a custom of this country not to demand from any man an account of what he may have done before he came out to it. In my particular case it was, however, nothing very discreditable, and I once had my aspirations, or, as you prefer to consider it, I recognized my obligations. Then the blow fell unexpectedly, and I came out here and became a hired man--a wandering chopper. After all, one learns to be content rather easily, which is in several ways fortunate. Then you instilled fresh aspirations--it's the right word in this case--into me, and I made another attempt, only to be hurled back again. There doesn't seem to be much use in attempting the impossible.”

”Then a thing is to be considered impossible after one fails twice?

There are men who fail--and go on again--all their lives long.”

”I'm afraid,” Nasmyth declared in a dull tone, ”I am not that kind of man. After all, to be flung down from the station you were born to--I'm using your own words--and turned suddenly adrift to labour with one's hands takes a good deal of the courage out of one. I almost think if you could put yourself in my place you would understand.”

Laura smiled in a suggestive fas.h.i.+on, and looked down at the hands she laid upon her knee. They were capable, as well as shapely, and, as he had noticed more than once, the signs of toil were very plain on them.

”I never did an hour's useful work before I came out West,” she said.

She had produced the effect she probably desired, for in the midst of his sudden pity for her Nasmyth was troubled with a sense of shame.

This girl, he realized, had been reared as gently as he had been himself, and he knew that she now toiled most of every day at what in the older country would have been considered most unwomanly tasks.

Still, she had borne with it cheerfully, and had courage to spare for others whose strength was less than hers.