"
Now she had him back out of the vanities of his philosophy. He was up,
inflamed, looking at her with an excitement on which she depended for her
future. She knew the caution of his nature, she realized how he would
take one step forward and another step back, and maybe get nowhere in the
end, and she wanted him--for a home, for her father's sake, for what he
could do for them both. She had no compunctions. She thought herself too
good for him, in a way, for in her day men of place and mark had taken
notice of her; and if it had not been for her Gonzales she would no doubt
have listened to one of them sometime or another. She knew she had
ability, even though she was indolent, and she thought she could do as
much for him as any other girl. If she gave him a handsome wife and
handsome children, and made men envious of him, and filled him with good
things, for she could cook more than tortillas-she felt he would have no
right to complain. She meant him to marry her--and Quebec was very near!
"A beggar in a strange land, without a home, without a friend--oh, my
broken life!" she whispered wistfully to the sunset.
It was not all acting, for the past reached out and swept over her,
throwing waves of its troubles upon the future. She was that saddest of
human beings, a victim of dual forces which so fought for mastery with
each other that, while the struggle went on, the soul had no firm
foothold anywhere.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42