“Do you really mean that you would leave me to go to spend two weeks tracking a grizzly bear?”
“It need not be as long as that.”
“It’s almost sure to be. It takes nearly two days to get to the ranch, and is such a tiresome trip that you will have to rest for another before you go out. You will be gone a fortnight at the very least.”
Cecil made no reply.
“We have not been engaged two weeks. Do you really mean that you will—that you can leave me for a loathsome grizzly bear?”
“I don’t want to leave you, of course. Couldn’t you come too?”
“And rough it? I never even camp out in the redwoods; and you have no idea what travelling in the wild parts of California means.”
“Of course you mustn’t come, then. But, you see, this is my only chance; and that is one of the things I came to California for—one that I started round the world after, for that matter. Surely you wouldn’t have me miss it! You told me to-day that you understood my feeling for sport.”
“I don’t understand at all how you can leave me! I’m not your own sort, you see, or, doubtless, I should.”
“It isn’t that only. You have led too many men round by the nose.”