“You––you didn’t really believe I’d come,” she said, her mouth quivering. “You––you were just making fun of me, I see, with––with that residence and––and the ladies who were ready to welcome me. Where are they?”
Ennis was scratching his head, or the cap over it, as he stared again at her. He realized 110 that some amazing, terrible mistake must have been made, as he thought––or that this girl must be the victim of some dreadful misunderstanding, if not of a foul plot. He began to pity her. She looked so weak, so helpless, in spite of the anger she had shown.
“There––there are no ladies,” he said, lamely, “except Mrs. Papineau and Mrs. Carew. They’re first-rate women, both of ’em. And of course Mrs. Papineau is your only resource till to-morrow, unless Stefan is coming back for you.”
“He isn’t,” she declared. “I said nothing about going back.”
“That’s awkward,” he admitted. “You’ll tell me all about this thing later on, won’t you, because I might be able to help you out. But you’ll be all right for a while, anyway. I’ll take you there.”
“Please start at once,” she cried, desperately. “I––I can’t stay here for another instant.”
“I can be ready in a very few minutes,” he told her, quietly. “But won’t you please come over to the shack. I’m sure you’re beginning to feel the cold. You––you’re shivering and––and I’m afraid you look rather ill.”
She had insisted on Stefan’s taking back 111 some of the things she had borrowed from his wife, and had been standing there in rather inadequate clothing. Ennis pulled off his heavy mackinaw jacket.
“You must put this on at once,” he told her, gently enough, “and come right over there with me.”
Madge shrank from him, as if she feared to be touched by him, and yet there was something in the frank way in which he addressed her, perhaps also in the clear and unembarrassed look of his eyes, that was gradually allaying her fears and the fierce repulsion of the first few moments. Finally, chilled as she was to the very marrow of her bones, she consented to accept his offer and submitted to his helping her on with the coat.