The Hunted Woman

o be the absurdity of a situation. He had a quick mental picture of himself out on the dead spruce, performing a bit of mock-heroism by draggi

her eyes glowing at him. "I know men wh

e been showing good jud

slender sapling which a week or two before he had cut and trimmed fo

fish me out-or th

nd then she added, "I suppose you are deeply grateful

d have caught at the end of your sapling like

as still pale. She was without a hat, and as she bent for a moment over the colt Aldous felt his eyes drawn irresistibly to the soft thick coils o

aid this path would lead to the river. When I saw you I was about to turn back. And then

uggestive inquiry in his voice as he added, "If you had gone to Têt

ey say it was a cave-in, a slide-something lik

to stay wit

no

she had seemed to

lly projected myself into your work, and I am afraid that I have caused you trouble. Mrs. Otto ha

rather monotonous existence up here. I have always believed, you know, that a certain amount of physical excit

r looked in the afternoon sun. He was struggling to keep himself behind the barriers he had built up and so long maintained in his writings. And yet, as he looked, he felt something crumbling into ruins. He knew that he had hurt her. The hardness of his words, the coldness of his smile, his apparently utter indifferen

With a quick movement she brushed

've treated you as badly as Quade-only in a different way. I know how I've made you feel-that you've been a nuisance,

fraid-y

ame to it. She saw the change in his face, regret, pain,

"I might as well be frank, don't you think? Until you came I had but one desire, and that was to finish my book.

pered, a tense waiting in he

grip of his fingers hurt her hand. "No, not

omen don't go to Tête Jaune al

one and unprotected among three or four thousand men like most of those up there would be a crime. And the women, too-the Little Sisters. They'd blast you. If you had a husband, a brother or a father waiting for you it w

he seemed taller. A rose-flush of colour spread over her cheeks. She drew her

u have done more for me now than I can ever repay. Friendship means service, and to

u need my assistance

"It was utterly absurd of me to hint that I might require assistance-that I ca

that-and not your beauty. I have known beautiful women before. But they were-just women, frail things that might snap under stress. I have always thought there is only one woman in ten

at she held her breath, her lips part

he went on. "You have lived there, and have troubled me. I could not construct you perfectly. It

e a lit

cried. "She was bad-bad to

ailed. And yet she was splendid. It was my crime-not hers-that she lacked a soul. She would have been my ideal, but I spoiled her. And by spoiling

compare m

t give to her. Joanne of 'Fair Play' was splendid without a soul. You have what she la

om Joanne's face. There was a

ould-strike you," she said. "As

remature gray in his hair. For a second time she felt almost overwhelmingly the mysterious strength of this man. Perhaps each took three breaths before John Aldous raised h

ght," said Aldous, breaking the tension of that

to--" sh

going to eat partridges with me," he interrupted.

e cabin and into

you?" he invited. "If it will give you any pleasure you

have, Aldous slipped back through the