'Who'd a' thought it! The little witch! Why
my sister--' 'Is an English girl,' interrupted Malemute Kid,
'with an English foot. This girl comes of a small-footed race.
Moccasins just broadened her feet healthily, while she did not
misshape them by running with the dogs in her childhood.' But
this explanation failed utterly to allay Prince's admiration.
Harrington's commercial instinct was touched, and as he looked
upon the exquisitely turned foot and ankle, there ran through his
mind the sordid list--'One rifle, one blanket, twenty bottles of
hooch.' Madeline was the wife of a king, a king whose yellow
treasure could buy outright a score of fashion's puppets; yet in
all her life her feet had known no gear save red-tanned
moosehide. At first she had looked in awe at the tiny white-satin
slippers; but she had quickly understood the admiration which
shone, manlike, in the eyes of the men. Her face flushed with
pride. For the moment she was drunken with her woman's loveliness;
then she murmured, with increased scorn, 'And one rifle, broke!'
So the training went on. Every day Malemute Kid led the girl out
on long walks devoted to the correction of her carriage and the
shortening of her stride.
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