to her, as I would have gone to any other creature in so dire
distress. On second thoughts, I went noiselessly back to my station in
the great room. She had not seen me, I was sure. Nor had I long to wait.
Presently she appeared, and I could have doubted the testimony of my
eyes, so changed were the agonized face and figure of a few moments
before. Beautiful and disdainful, she moved to the table, and took
the great chair drawn before it with the air of an empress mounting a
throne. I contented myself with the stool.

She ate nothing, and scarcely touched the canary I poured for her.
I pressed upon her wine and viands,--in vain; I strove to make
conversation,--equally in vain. Finally, tired of "yes" and "no" uttered
as though she were reluctantly casting pearls before swine, I desisted,
and applied myself to my supper in a silence as sullen as her own. At
last we rose from table, and I went to look to the fastenings of door
and windows, and returning found her standing in the centre of the room,
her head up and her hands clenched at her sides. I saw that we were to
have it out then and there, and I was glad of it.

"You have something to say," I said. "I am quite at your command," and I
went and leaned against the chimneypiece.

The low fire upon the hearth burnt lower still before she broke the
silence. When she did speak it was slowly, and with a voice which was
evidently controlled only by a strong effort of a strong will. She
said:--

"When--yesterday, to-day, ten thousand years ago you went from this
horrible forest down to that wretched village yonder, to those huts that
make your London, you went to buy you a wife?"

"Yes, madam," I answered. "I went with that intention."

"You had made your calculation? In your mind you had pitched upon
such and such an article, with such and such qualities, as desirable?
Doubtless you meant to get your money's worth?"

"Doubtless," I said dryly.

"Will you tell me what you were inclined to consider its equivalent?"

I stared at her, much inclined to laugh. The interview promised to be
interesting.

"I went to Jamestown to get me a wife," I said at length, "because I had
pledged my word that I would do so. I was not over-anxious. I did not
run all the way. But, as you say, I intended to do the best I could for
myself; one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco being a considerable
sum, and not to be lightly thrown away. I went to look for a mistress
for my house, a c