Her gaze fastened on the tip of her suede toe, apparently studying it attentively. “It would be a gratification to my vanity to parade you as the captive of my bow and spear. You’re such a magnificent specimen, such a berserk in broadcloth. Still. I shan’t marry you if I can help it—but, then, I’m not sure that I can help it. Of course, I disapprove of you entirely, but you’re rather fascinating, you know.” Her eye traveled slowly up to his, appraising the masterful lines of his square figure, the dominant strength of his close-shut mouth and resolute eyes. “Perhaps ‘fascinating’ isn’t just the word, but I can’t help being interested in you, whether I like you or not. I suppose you always get what you want very badly?” she flung out by way of question. “That’s what I’m trying to discover”—he smiled. “There are things to be considered both ways,” she said, taking him into her confidence. “You trample on others. How do I know you wouldn’t tread on me?” “That would be one of the risks you would take,” he agreed impersonally. “I shouldn’t like that at all. If I married you it would be because as your wife I should have so many opportunities. I should expect to do exactly as I please. I shouldn’t want you to interfere with me, though I should want to be able to influence you.” “Nothing could be fairer than that,” was his amiably ironical comment. “You see, I don’t know you—not really—and they say all sorts of things about you.” “They don’t say I am a quitter, do they?” She leaned forward, chin in hand and elbow on knee. It was a part of the accent of her distinction that as a rebel she was both demure and daring. “I wonder if I might ask you some questions—the intimate kind that people think but don’t say—at least, they don’t say them to you.” “It would be a pleasure to me to be put on the witness-stand. I should probably pick up some interesting side-lights about myself.” “Very well.” Her eyes danced with excitement. “You’re what they call a buccaneer of business, aren’t you?” Here were certainly diverting pastimes. “I believe I have been called that; but, then, I’ve had the hardest names in the dictionary thrown at me so often that I can’t be sure.” “I suppose you are perfectly unscrupulous in a business way—stop at nothing to gain your point?” He took her impudence smilingly. “‘Unscrupulous’ isn’t the word I use when I explain myself to myself, but as an unflattered description, such as one my enemies might use to describe me, I dare say it is fairly accurate.” “I wonder why. Do you dispense with a conscience entirely?” “Well, you see, Miss Balfour, if I nursed a New England conscience I could stand up to the attacks of the Consolidated about as long as a dove to a hawk. I meet fire with fire to avoid being wiped off the map of the mining world. I play the game. I can’t afford to keep a button on my foil when my opponent doesn’t.”