ad rather queer taste in women, Jack; but, of course, being a
long-rider, you haven't seen much of them. At least her name is
delightful--Mary Brown! You've no idea how often I've repeated it
aloud to myself and relished the sound--Mary Brown!"

"I hate her!"

"You two didn't have a very agreeable time of it? By the way, she must
have left in rather a hurry to forget her glove, eh?"

"Yes, she ran--like a coward."

"Ah?"

"Like a trembling coward. How can you care for a white-faced little
fool like that? Is she your match? Is she your mate?"

He considered a moment, as though to make sure that he did not
exaggerate.

"I love her, Jack, as men love water when they've ridden all day over
hot sand without a drop on their lips--you know when the tongue gets
thick and the mouth fills with cotton--and then you see clear, bright
water, and taste it."

"She is like that to me. She feeds every sense; and when I look in her
eyes, Jack, I feel like the starved man on the desert, as I was saying,
drinking that priceless water. You knew something of the way I feel,
Jack. Isn't it a little odd that you didn't keep her here?"

She had stood literally shuddering during this speech, and now she
burst out, far beyond all control: "Because she loathes you; because
she hates herself for ever having loved you; because she despises
herself for having ridden up here after you. Does that fill your cup
of water, Pierre, eh?"

His forehead was shining with sweat, but he set his teeth, and, after a
moment, he was able to say in the same hard, calm voice: "I suppose
there was no real reason for her change. She can be persuaded back to
me in a moment. In that case just tell me where she has gone and I'll
ride after her."

He made as if to rise, but she cried in a panic, and yet with a wild
exultation: "No, she's done with you forever, and the more you make
love to her now the more she'll hate you. Because she knows that when
you kissed her before--when you kissed her--you were living with a
woman."

"I--living with a woman?"

Her voice had risen out of the whisper for the outbreak. Now it sank
back into it.

"Yes--with me!"

"With you? I see. Naturally it must have gone hard with her--Mary!
And she wouldn't see reason even when you explained that you and I are
like brothers?"

He leaned a little toward her and just a shade of emotion came in his
voice.

"When you carefully explained, Jack, with all the eloqu