Page:GB Lancaster--law-bringer.djvu/457

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"THIS PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVENTURE"
455

sun will come again to-morrow, you know. And we will see it more every day as we go south."

"But it is not the sun I did know. And these are not the same stars, Dick."

"I know. But we will get back to them again."

"Oh, oui," she said. And then she looked at Selkirk and the fat Esquimaux boy swinging ahead round the bend in the river. "It is to-night that we make arrive to Fort Macpherson?" she asked.

"To-night. Unless you stand here too long. Are you tired, Andree? You are such a splendid musher that I sometimes forget you're only a girl."

"I am not tired." She looked at him gravely, with that last red light on her face. "I do not know what it is, parceque je suis très content. I did not think ever in my life to have you near me for so long time, Dick. What you want to put your hand up that way for?"

"You are so very pretty that I think I am afraid of your blinding me, Andree."

The joy shown over her face suddenly. Her eyes sparkled, and she laughed, putting her hands up against his neck.

"Ma foi!" she cried. "I am glad. Now I do forget that ever I hated you. I want to be so pretty always when you do look at me, Dick."

"Don't! Take your hands down! I have told you before not to touch me!"

She let him go instantly.

"Eh, bien," she said, with a little sigh, and Dick looked at her, frowning.

"Why are you always obedient to me and not to the others?" he said.

"Why—if I am good perhaps one day you will love me and kiss me again—if I am good," she said.

In that fast-fading light he took her face between his hands, turning it up to him.

"You have broken very many men in your time," he said. "Do you want to break me, too, Grange's Andree?"

"I want you to kiss me again," she said simply.

"And can't you understand that if I did—No. I can't