“You think I need help?” he asked, with a self-confident look in his eyes.
“You did need me in the battle!” answered the girl proudly.
“True!” said Grôm. “But for you I should now have been sleeping under the stones and the wind.”
He looked at her with a feeling that surprised himself, a kind of thrilling tenderness, such as he had never felt toward a woman before. His wives had been good wives and dutiful, and he had been content with them. But it occurred to him that neither of them would ever have thought to come with him on this expedition.
“I could not stay without you,” said the girl again. “Also, I was afraid of Mawg,” she added cunningly.
A wave of jealous wrath surged through Grôm’s veins.
“If Mawg had troubled you, I would have killed 59 him!” said he fiercely. And, snatching the girl to her feet, he crushed her for a moment vehemently to his great breast.
“But why,” he went on, “did you follow me so secretly all day?”
“I was afraid you would be angry, and send me back,” she answered, with a sigh of content.
“I could not have sent you back,” said Grôm, his indifference quite forgotten. “But come, we must find a place for the night.”