“Perhaps I am. I rather liked your attitude--expression, rather--of cool superiority.” “Why don’t you use the word prig?” “Oh, no!--Well, perhaps that is what I did mean.” He stopped short, regardless of the annoyance he caused several impetuous couples. “If you did I shall leave you right here.” “I did not. Please go on. Everybody is staring at us. You took me completely by surprise.” “I? Why?” “You are the last man I should expect the usual small talk from.” “Small talk? Heavens knows I have none of that. Girls used to talk my head off in self-defence. I merely said what I thought. What did you expect me to talk about?” “Oh--mines, I suppose.” Again, to her surprise, his face lit up as if by an inner and jealously hidden torch. But he said soberly: “Well, there is no more interesting subject. Never has been since the world began. Where shall we find a seat?” The waltz was over. The chairs were filling. Young couples were flitting toward the embowered corners. “Let’s go outside,” he said abruptly. “What? On the street? And nobody goes out of doors from a ballroom in June.” “Good reason for going. Come with me.” He led her to the cloak-room. “Get your wrap,” he said. Ora frowned, but she asked for her heavy white woollen wrap and put it on; then automatically followed him down the stairs and into the street. “Why don’t you get your coat and hat?” she asked, still dazed. “It’s cold, you know.” “I never was cold in my life,” he said contemptuously. He hailed a taxi. “I must go up to the School of Mines, and ask the result of some assaying,” he added as he almost lifted her in. “Then we can talk up there. May I smoke?” “I don’t care what you do.” He smiled directly into her resentful eyes this time and tucked the lap-robe about her. XX He apparently forgot her during the short drive and stared through the open window of the cab, his thoughts, no doubt, in the assay room of the School, where several students, as ardent as himself, were experimenting with ore they had managed to secure from a recently opened mine. Ora’s resentment vanished, partly because she reflected that a new and original experience was a boon to be grateful for in Butte, but more because she was thrilled with the sense of adventure. Her woman’s instinct gave assurance that he had no intention of making love to her, but it also whispered that, whether she liked or disliked him when the adventure was over, she would have something to remember. And it was the first time she ever had indulged in recklessness. Butte would be by the ears on the morrow if it learned of her escapade. When they reached the dark School of Mines he dismissed the taxi, and said to Ora, “Wait for me here. I shan’t be a moment.” He disappeared and Ora shrugged her shoulders and sat down on the steps. He returned in a few moments and extended himself over several steps below her. “Comfortable?” he asked. “Very!” “It’s a night, isn’t it?” he asked abruptly.