And when you give him your affection, Miss
Cumberland, _you are giving your affection to a wild wolf!_ Do you
believe me?"
He knew that she was shaken. He could feel it, even without the
testimony of his eyes to witness. He went on, speaking with great
rapidity, lest she should escape from the influence which he had already
gained over her.
"I felt it when I first saw him--a certain nameless kinship with
elemental forces. The wind blew through the open door--it was Dan Barry.
The wild geese called from the open sky--for Dan Barry. These are the
things which lead him. These the forces which direct him. You have loved
him; but is love merely a giving? No, you have seen in him a man, but I
see in him merely the animal force."
She said after a moment: "Do you hate him--you plead against him so
passionately?"
He answered: "Can you hate a thing which is not human? No, but you can
dread it. It escapes from the laws which bind you and which bind me.
What standards govern it? How can you hope to win it? Love? What beauty
is there in the world to appeal to such a creature except the beauty of
the marrow-bone which his teeth have the strength to snap?"
"Ah, listen!" murmured the girl. "Here is your answer!"
And Doctor Randall Byrne heard a sound like the muted music of the
violin, thin and small and wonderfully penetrating. He could not tell,
at first, what it might be. For it was as unlike the violin as it was
like the bow and the rosined strings.
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