"Oh, indeed!"
"Yes—whether you are happy!"
She had found her temper, which enabled her to put a keener edge on the words, "That, I should say, is not your business"; and she stared at Swift coldly where he stood, with his hands behind him, looking down upon her without wincing.
"I am not so sure," said he sturdily. "I loved you dearly; I could have made you happy."
"It is well you think so," was the best answer she could think of for that; and she did not think of it at once. "Do you know who he is?" she added later.
"Herbert told me. It seems you have tampered with a splendid chance."
"I have tampered with three. I shall jump at the next—if I get another."
"And if you don't?"
Involuntarily she drew a deep breath at the thought. Her head was lifted, and her blue eyes wandered over the yellow distance of the plains with the look of a prisoner coming back into the world.
"Nobody could blame him," she said at last, "and I should be rightly served."