Black Hills (S.D. and Wyo.) -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction; Frontier and pioneer life -- United States -- Fiction
As one of the inevitable results, the emotion which Molly experienced
in at once denying herself and combating Harry was gradually translated
into a fascinated sort of passion for him. Then, too, since naturally
the interest of these indecisive encounters increased with each, the
two came to see each other oftener and oftener, until the habit of
companionship was well established. This habit is very real. The
approach of the accustomed hour for meeting causes the heart to beat
faster, the breath to come quicker, the imagination to kindle; while
the foregoing of a single appointment is a dull loss difficult to bear
with patience. It counterfeits well many of the symptoms of love, and
for a short time is nearly as burning a passion.
Sometimes the attack would be more direct. Cheyenne Harry's stock of
sophistry would give out, as well as his stock of patience.
"Oh, come on, Molly," he would cry, "just one! I've been real good,
now haven't I? Oh, come on!"
"You've been nothing but a great big brute, Mr. Cheyenne Harry!" she
cried in a tone that implied he had not.
Harry advanced a little, holding out his hands, much as one would
approach a timid setter dog. She put one finger on her lips, and
watched him, bright-eyed. When he was near enough, she boxed his ears,
and twisted her slender young body out of reach, laughing mockingly,
and wrinkling her nose at him.
But then when they had returned to camp, and once more she found
herself alone, the delicious questions always came up; how far did he
intend to go? Did he see through such and such a stratagem? Was he
really vexed at such and such a speech, or was he merely feigning? In
what manner would he dare accost her when next they met? And so
another meeting became necessary soon--at once. They saw more and more
of each other, to the neglect of many real duties.
For a time the influence of Jack Graham did something to stem the drift
of this affair, but that lasted only until he himself fell in love with
her.
With him her first emotion had been of eager intellectual awakening;
her second, that of piqued curiosity; her third, of reactionary
dulness. As time went on she came to pass and repass through those
three phases with ever increased rapidity, until at the last their
constant reiteration might almost have relegated them to the category
of whims. She liked to be with him, because he made her aware of new
possibilities in herself. She could not understand him, because his
attitude toward her was never that of the lover. She experienced
moments of revolt, when she cried out passionately but ineffectually
against an influence which would compel her to elevations rarer than
the atmosphere of her everyday, easy-going pleasure-taking life.
Ineffectually, I say, for something always forced her back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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