her was a gross and
brutish thing. Her ideal of masculine beauty had always been slender
gracefulness. Yet the thought still persisted. It bewildered her that
she should desire to place her hands on that sunburned neck. In truth,
she was far from robust, and the need of her body and mind was for
strength. But she did not know it. She knew only that no man had ever
affected her before as this one had, who shocked her from moment to
moment with his awful grammar.

"Yes, I ain't no invalid," he said. "When it comes down to hard-pan, I
can digest scrap-iron. But just now I've got dyspepsia. Most of what
you was sayin' I can't digest. Never trained that way, you see. I like
books and poetry, and what time I've had I've read 'em, but I've never
thought about 'em the way you have. That's why I can't talk about 'em.
I'm like a navigator adrift on a strange sea without chart or compass.
Now I want to get my bearin's. Mebbe you can put me right. How did you
learn all this you've ben talkin'?"

"By going to school, I fancy, and by studying," she answered.

"I went to school when I was a kid," he began to object.

"Yes; but I mean high school, and lectures, and the university."

"You've gone to the university?" he demanded in frank amazement. He felt
that she had become remoter from him by at least a million miles.

"I'm going there now. I'm taking special courses in English."

He did not know what "English" meant, but he made a mental note of that
item of ignorance and passed on.

"How long would I have to study before I could go to the university?" he
asked.

She beamed encouragement upon his desire for knowledge, and said: "That
depends upon how much studying you have already done. You have never
attended high school? Of course not. But did you finish grammar
school?"

"I had two years to run, when I left," he answered. "But I was always
honorably promoted at school."

The next moment, angry with himself for the boast, he had gripped the
arms of the chair so savagely that every finger-end was stinging. At the
same moment he became aware that a woman was entering the room. He saw
the girl leave her chair and trip swiftly across the floor to the
newcomer. They kissed each other, and, with arms around each other's
waists, they advanced toward him. That must be her mother, he thought.
She was a tall, blond woman, slender, and stately, and beautiful. Her
gown was what he might expect in such a h