"Still, I do not—"
"Not when you recall what I told you about that frightful puff adder—that I was stooping to pick an amaryllis when the hideous creature struck at me?"
"You mentioned something about a snake, but there was so much else—"
"Yes, it was only once of the many, many times when he proved himself a man. Though the adder only struck the fold of my skirt, I stood paralyzed with horror. Winthrope, as usual, was ineffectual. Tom came running with his club—and then—" The girl paused until the vivid blush that had leaped into her cheeks had ebbed away. "It was not alone his courage but his resourcefulness. Most men would have turned away from the writhing monster, full of loathing. He saw the opportunity to convert what had been a most deadly peril into a source of safety. He sent me away, and extracted the poison for his arrow tips."
"My dear child, I freely admit that he is an admirable savage," conceded Mrs. Gantry.
"Say rather that he was fit to survive in a savage environment. We shall now see him adapt himself to the other extreme."
"Young girls always tend to idealize those whom they chance to fancy." "Chance? Fancy? Dear Aunt Amice, you and papa do not, perhaps cannot, realize that for those many weeks I lived with storm and starvation, sun and fever, serpents and ferocious beasts all striving to destroy me. I saw the hard realities of life, and learned to think. Mentally I am no longer a young girl, but a woman, qualified to judge what her future should be."
The glowing face of her usually composed niece warned Mrs. Gantry to be discreet. She patted the coils of soft hair. "There, there, my dear. Pray do not misunderstand me. All I ask is that you make sure before you commit yourself,—a few months of delay, that you may compare him with the men of our own class."
Genevieve smiled. "I have gone quite beyond that already, Aunt Amice."
"Indeed?" murmured the elder woman. Too tactful to venture further, she placed a ring-crowded hand upon her ample bosom. "It is too close in here. I feel oppressed."