"Is supper ready?"
It was such an inane remark! He turned aside like a boy who has been snubbed.
Monsieur Soucin had provided bread and cheese, a salad, and coffee. It was enough. She had no appetite. She took much more satisfaction in watching Monte and in pouring his coffee. His honest hunger was not disturbed by any vain speculations. He ate like a man, as he did everything like a man. It restored her confidence again.
"Soucin lent a mattress, which I have arranged just the other side of the wall. That is your room. With plenty of blankets you should be comfortable enough there," he said.
"And you?" she inquired.
"I am on this side of the wall," he replied gravely.
"What are you going to sleep upon?"
"A blanket."
If it had been possible to do so, she would have given him the mattress and slept upon the ground herself. That is what she would have liked to do.
"It's no more than I have done in the woods when I could n't make camp in time," he explained. "I had hoped to take you some day to my cabin near the lake."