“Shall we walk along the cliffs?”
She hesitated a moment. “No; let us go into the forest.”
As they entered they were greeted by a rush of cool perfumed air, the scent of wild lilac and lily, the strong bracing odor of redwood and pine. For a hundred yards or more there was little brush; the great trees stood far apart; but as they left the plateau and ascended a narrow trail, the young redwoods and ferns and lilacs grew thick. It was a hard pull and they said little. He helped her up the almost perpendicular ascent, over fallen trees and rocks, and huge roots springing across the path like pythons, and wondered if they were penetrating wilds hitherto sacred to the red man. Presently the low roar of water greeted them, and pushing their way through a small grove of ferns they came upon the high bank of a broad creek. Beyond and around rose the dark rigid forest, but into the opening the stars flung plentiful light. They revealed the clear rapid rush of water over huge stones and logs that looked like living things, great bunches of maiden-hair springing from dripping boulders, the dark mysterious perspective of the creek.
Clive did not wonder if he would lose his head. He had no intention of keeping it.
“Sit down,” she said, arranging herself on a fallen pine and leaning against a redwood. Clive made himself as comfortable as he could, and she gave him permission to light his pipe.
The lace mantilla, in spite of brush and briar, still clung to her head and shoulders. She looked very lovely and womanly.
“Why did you bring me here?” he asked. “You told me the other night that you would never trust yourself alone with me. This is equivalent to saying that you want me to make love to you. I am quite ready.”
“How brutally abrupt you are. I don’t want you to make love to me. I meant to tell you before we started that I did not expect it. Most women do, I know, and it must be such a relief to a man to be let off occasionally.” She opened and closed her large fan, with a graceful motion of the wrist, and then turned and looked straight at him. “I have never walked alone with a man in this forest before,” she said; “neither at night nor in the daytime. It would have been spoiled for me if I had.”
He pulled at his pipe. “You are a very brave woman. If what you say is true, what is your reason for bringing me here?”
“I felt a desire to do so, and I always obey my whims.”