Alice Deringham could just see his face in the moonlight, and it was gravely compassionate, but there was in it, none of the personal admiration she had sometimes noticed there, which had its effect upon her attitude towards him. He was, she felt, sorry for her because she was a woman menaced by some difficulty, and that she should be an object of pity to this bush rancher stung the pride, of which she had a good deal. Had he tendered his sympathy because she was Alice Deringham it is possible that she would have told him something, though not exactly the simple state of the case. As it was, however, she shook his hand off, and looked at him with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Why should you suppose that, and venture to presume upon it?" she said.
"Would it be presuming?"
"It would," said the girl very coldly.
"Then," said Alton, "you can't tell me?"
"No, of course not. Is there any reason why I should?"
Here at least was an opportunity, but if the man desired to gain his companion's confidence he made an indifferent use of it. "We are some kind of relations, and you promised to be friends with me," he said.
Miss Deringham laughed a little. "One seldom tells one's troubles to one's friends," she said.
Alton seemed to sigh. "Then there is nothing I can do?"
"Yes," said Miss Deringham. "People are usually best alone when they have to grapple with a difficulty."