e, get
rather above that sort of thing. The woman: that was all that was in his
mind. She was good to look at: warm, lovable, fascinating in her little
daring wickednesses; a fiery little animal, full of splendid impulses,
gifted with a perilous temperament: and she loved him. He had a kind of
exultation at the very fierceness of her love for him, of what she had
done to prove her love: her fury at Vanne Castine, the slaughter of
the bear, and the intention to kill Vanne himself; and he knew that she
would do more than that, if a great test came. Men feel surer of women
than women feel of men.

He sat down on the broad window-ledge, still sipping his whiskey and
milk, as he looked at her. She was very good to see. Presently she had
to cross a little plot of grass. The dew was still on it. She gathered
up her skirts and tip-toed quickly across it. The action was attractive
enough, for she had a lithe smoothness of motion. Suddenly he uttered an
exclamation of surprise.

"White stockings--humph!" he said.

Somehow those white stockings suggested the ironical comment of the
world upon his proposed mesalliance; then he laughed good-humouredly.

"Taste is all a matter of habit, anyhow," said he to himself. "My own
sister wouldn't have had any better taste if she hadn't been taught. And
what am I?

"What am I? I drink more whiskey in a day than any three men in the
country. I don't do a stroke of work; I've got debts all over the world;
I've mulcted all my friends; I've made fools of two or three women in
my time; I've broken every commandment except--well, I guess I've
broken every one, if it comes to that, in spirit, anyhow. I'm a thief,
a fire-eating highwayman, begad, and here I am, with a perforated lung,
going to marry a young girl like that, without one penny in the world
except what I stole! What beasts men are! The worst woman may be worse
than the worst man, but all men are worse than most women. But she wants
to marry me. She knows exactly what I am in health and prospects; so why
shouldn't I?"

He drew himself up, thinking honestly. He believed that he would live if
he married Christine; that his "cold" would get better; that the hole in
his lung would heal. It was only a matter of climate; he was sure of
it. Christine had a few hundred dollars--she had told him so. Suppose
he took three hundred dollars of the five thousand dollars: that would
leave four thousand seven hundred dollars for his sister. He cou