“Daggs, y’u keep your paws off me,” she said.
“Aw, now, Ellen, I ain’t no bear,” he remonstrated. “What’s the matter, kid?”
“I’m not a kid. And there’s nothin’ the matter. Y’u’re to keep your hands to yourself, that’s all.”
He tried to reach her across the table, and his movements were lazy and slow, like his smile. His tone was coaxing.
“Mah dear, shore you set on my knee just the other day, now, didn’t you?”
Ellen felt the blood sting her cheeks.
“I was a child,” she returned.
“Wal, listen to this heah grown-up young woman. All in a few days! ... Doon’t be in a temper, Ellen.... Come, give us a kiss.”
She deliberately gazed into his eyes. Like the eyes of an eagle, they were clear and hard, just now warmed by the dalliance of the moment, but there was no light, no intelligence in them to prove he understood her. The instant separated Ellen immeasurably from him and from all of his ilk.
“Daggs, I was a child,” she said. “I was lonely—hungry for affection—I was innocent. Then I was careless, too, and thoughtless when I should have known better. But I hardly understood y’u men. I put such thoughts out of my mind. I know now—know what y’u mean—what y’u have made people believe I am.”