He was handsome in a
coarse way, like a fine young animal, well groomed, well fed,
magnetic, forceful; but his boldness, being of a sort to which she
had not been accustomed, disturbed her vaguely and strangely.
"Suppose that I don't pass on?" he presently ventured, with just a
suspicion of insolence in his attitude, but laughing until he
showed teeth of remarkable beauty and whiteness. "Suppose that I
should wish to have a little chat with you, Mademoiselle?"
"I have been told that there are men in the world who think
themselves handsome, and clever, and brilliant, when in fact they
are but conceited simpletons," she remarked, rather indifferently,
muffling herself in her fur wrap. "You certainly would be a fairly
good hitching-post for our horses if you never moved." Then she
laughed out of the depth of her hood, a perfectly merry laugh, but
not in the least flattering to Captain Farnsworth's vanity. He
felt the scorn that it conveyed.
His face grew redder, while a flash from hers made him wish that
he had been more gracious in his deportment. Here, to his
surprise, was not a mere creole girl of the wild frontier.
Her superiority struck him with the force of a captivating
revelation, under the light of which he blinked and winced.
She laid a shapely hand on the broken gate and pushed it open.
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