rrents of strife now broke forth again. Thus
he raged--

'What was the use of my coming here? Why should the Fates have sent me
here if I cannot go this errand for you, or if I cannot go with you to
protect you? If this beast is walking about on snow-shoes, how do you
know that he will not attack you as soon as you are out of sight of the
house?'

She seemed to realise that it was strange to be discussing her own
safety with her prisoner. Very curious was the conflict in her face; her
strong natural companionableness, her suspicion of him, and her sense of
the dignity which her situation demanded, contending together. It seemed
easier for her to disregard his words than to give all the answers which
her varying feelings would prompt. She was tying on a mink cap by
winding a woollen scarf about her head.

'Miss Madge! Miss King! It is perfectly intolerable! It--it is
intolerable!' He stepped nearer as he spoke. A thought came over him
that even the conventional title of 'Miss' which he had given her was
wholly inappropriate in a situation so strong--that he and she, merely
as man and woman, as rational beings, were met together in a wilderness
where conventions were folly. 'I cannot allow you to risk your life in
this way.' There was a tense emphasis in his words; he felt the natural
authority of the protector over the tender thing to be protected, the
intimate authority which stress of circumstance may give.

She dropped her hands from tying the scarf under her chin, returning for
his words a look of mingled curiosity, indecision, and distrust.

Quick as she looked upon him, his mind's eye looked upon himself; there
he stood in grotesque undress, bound around with the cords of an
extraordinary disgrace. He blamed himself at the moment for not having
had his hair cut more recently, for he knew that it stood in a wild
shock above his head, and he felt that it dangled in his eyes. Then a
gust of emotion, the momentary desire for laughter or groans of
vexation, rose and choked his utterance, and in the minute that he was
mute the girl, sitting down upon a low stool, began tightening the
strings of her moccasins, which, after the first putting on, had relaxed
with the warmth of the feet. Her business-like preparations for the road
maddened him.

'Don't you see,' he said, 'what disgrace you are heaping upon me? What
right have you to deny to me, a gentleman and your guest, the right to
serve and protect you? Consider t