"Will you read it?" he asked Colina.
She shook her head. He handed it to her unsealed, and she thrust it in her dress.
"I'm ever so much obliged to you," he said, trying to keep up the reasonable air. "How pretty your hair looks that way!" he added inconsequentially. The words were surprised out of him.
She turned abruptly. It was beginning to be dark in the shack, and he could no longer see into her face.
Her movement was too much for his self-control. "Ah, must you go?" he cried sharply. "Another minute or two! It will be dreadful here after you've gone!"
"What's the use?" she whispered.
"True," he said harshly. "What's the use?" He turned his back on her.
"Good night, and thank you."
She lingered, hand upon the doorlatch. "Isn't there—isn't there something else I can do?" she asked.
"No, thank you."
Still she stayed. "You haven't touched your supper," she said in a small voice. "Mayn't I—send you something from the house?"