"Apologize?" and his form straightened. "Certainly not… One doesn't apologize for nature, does he? … But it comes back in September." He smiled, and she thought the subconscious in him was calling up the smell of fire in dry grass, or perhaps even the rumble of buffalo over the hills. And he knew he smiled because he had so completely misled her.
Presently she took out a pocket volume. "Will you read?" she said. Strangely enough he opened it at the lines:
"Oh, you will never hide your soul from me;
I've seen the jewels flash, and know 'tis there
Muffle it as you will."
…It was dusk when they started homeward.
Forsyth was waiting for her. Dave scented stormy weather and excused himself early.
"What does this mean?" demanded Forsyth, angrily, as soon as Dave had gone. "Do you think I'll take second place to that—that coal heaver?"
She straightened, and her bright eyes were charged with a blaze which would have astonished Dave, who had known her only in her milder moods. But she tried to speak without passion.
"That is not to his discredit," she said.
"Straight from the corrals into good society," Forsyth sneered.
Then she made no pretense of composure. "If you have nothing more to urge against Mr. Elden, perhaps you will go."