Canada, Western -- Fiction; Farm life -- Canada -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
Urmston, in the meanwhile, found the contemplation of her sufficient for
him, and it is probable that most other men would have done the same.
She lay, clad in a long white dress, in a big lounge-chair, with the
silvery moonlight full upon her. It brought out the duskiness of her
eyes and hair, and made her somewhat cold beauty the more apparent,
though there was at the time a faint, illusory gentleness in her face, a
note the man had noticed more than once of late. He would have liked to
think that he had brought it there, but could not quite persuade himself
that this was so, though there had been a time when he had seen that
soft light creep into her eyes as she greeted him. He had also a vague,
uncomfortable feeling that, although circumstances had certainly been
against him, it was, perhaps, his own fault that he could now no longer
call it up. Carrie was gracious to him, save when he was too
venturesome, but he saw that her regard for him was widely different
from what it had been. There was more reserve in her attitude towards
him than her mere recognition of what was due to her husband could
account for. He also noticed that she was a trifle anxious, which
brought him no great consolation, in view of the fact that Leland had
ridden out with his rifle early the day before. Eveline Annersly finally
spoke after the silence that had lasted for several minutes.
"Gallwey seems to fancy Charley should have been back several hours
ago," she said. "Charley told him he would be in to supper, if all
went--as they expected it to."
She stole a swift glance at Carrie, who was then gazing out across the
prairie as though in search of something, and, though the girl did not
move, she fancied there was a change in her expression. It suggested a
growing uneasiness.
"I scarcely suppose Charley could tell exactly how long they would be,"
she said.
"That," said Eveline Annersly, "is very probable, and, in any case, he
is not likely to come to harm. In fact, one would be more inclined to
feel anxious about the outlaws he might fall in with than about Charley
Leland. I daresay it was fanciful, but, when he rode away, he reminded
me of the picture the Acres have of the moss-trooper. You, of course,
know the one I mean--the man in the steel cap with the moonlight
sparkling on his spear. There is something of the same grimness in both
faces, and, in the moss-trooper's case, the artist hit it rather well.
It is an intangible something one can't well define, primitive probably,
for I don't remember having seen it in the face of any man I am
acquainted with at home."
She turned towards Urmston with a little laugh. "You haven't got it,
Reggie, though now and then I almost fancy that Carrie has. I don't
think you would have made a good moss-trooper."
Urmston smiled in turn. "I really don't think the kind of life they led
would have appealed to me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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