AN INVITATION TO DINE.
Lunch was not long in preparing, for the rice had been on the fire when
Colina first appeared. The young man set forth the meal as temptingly
as he could on a flat rock, and at the risk of breaking his sinews
carried another rock for Colina to sit upon. His apologies for the
discrepancies in the service disarmed Colina again.
"I am no fine lady," she said. "I know what it is to live out."
Colina was hungry and the food good. A good understanding rapidly
established itself between them. But the young man made no move to
serve himself. Indeed he sat at the other side of the rock-table and
produced his pipe.
"Why don't you eat?" demanded Colina.
"There is plenty of time," he said, blushing.
"But why wait?"
"Well--there's only one knife and fork."
"Is that all?" said Colina coolly. "We can pass them back and
forth--can't we?"
Starting up and dropping the pipe in his pocket he flashed a look of
extraordinary rapture on her that brought Colina's eyelids fluttering
down like winged birds. He was a disconcerting young man. Resentment
moved her, but she couldn't think of anything to say.
They ate amicably, passing the utensils back and forth.
After a while Colina asked: "Do you know who I am?"
"Of course," he said. "Miss Colina Gaviller."
"I don't know you," she said.
"I am Ambrose Doane, of Moultrie."
"Where is Moultrie?"
"On Lake Miwasa--three hundred miles down the river."
"Three hundred miles!" exclaimed Colina. "Have you come so far alone?"
"I have Job," Ambrose said with a smile.
"How much farther are you going?" she asked.
"Only to Fort Enterprise."
"Oh!" she said. The question in the air was: "What did you come for?"
Both felt it.
"Do you know my father?" Colina asked.
"No," said Ambrose.
"I suppose you have business with him?"
"No," he said again.
Colina glanced at him with a shade of annoyance. "We don't have many
visitors in the summer," she said carelessly.
"I suppose not," said Ambrose simply.
Colina was a woman--and an impulsive one; it was bound to come sooner
or later: "What did you come for?"
His eyes pounced on hers with the same look of mixed boldness and
apprehension that she had marked before; she saw that he caught his
breath before answering.
"To see you!" he said.
Colina saw it coming, and would have given worlds to have recalled the
question. She blushed all over--a horrible, unequivocal, burning
blush. She hated herself for blushing--and hated him for making her.
"Upon my word!" she stammered. It was all she could get out.
He did not triumph over her discomfiture; his eyes were cast down, and
his hand trembled. Colina could not tell whether he were more bold or
simple. She had a sinking fear that here was a young man capable of
setting all her maxims on men at naught. She didn't know what to do
with him.
"What do you know about me?" she demanded.
It sounded feeble in her own ears. She felt that whatever she might
say he was marching steadily over her defenses. Somehow, everything
that he said made them more intimate.
"There was a fellow from here came by our place," said Ambrose simply.
"Poly Goussard. He told us about you--"
"Talked about me!" cried Colina stormily.
"You should have heard what he said," said Ambrose with his
venturesome, diffident smile. "He thinks you are the most beautiful
woman in the world!" Ambrose's eyes added that he agreed with Poly.
It was impossible for Colina to be angry at this, though she wished to
be. She maintained a haughty silence.
Ambrose faltered a little.
"I--I haven't talked to a white girl in a year," he said. "This is our
slack season--so I--I came to see you."
If Colina had been a man this was very like what she might have
said---to meet with candor equal to her own in the other sex, however,
took all the wind out of her sails.
"How dare you!" she murmured, conscious of sounding ridiculous.
Ambrose cast down his eyes. "I have not said anything insulting," he
said doggedly. "After what Poly said it was natural for me to want to
come and see you."
"In the slack season," she murmured sarcastically.
"I couldn't have come in the winter," he said naïvely.
Colina despised herself for disputing with him. She knew she ought to
have left at once--but she was unable to think of a sufficiently
telling remark to cover a dignified retreat.
"You are presumptuous!" she said haughtily.
"Presumptuous?" he repeated with a puzzled air.
She decided that he was more simple than bold. "I mean that men do not
say such things to women," she began as one might rebuke a little
boy--but the conclusion was lamentable, "to women to whom they have not
even been introduced!"
"Oh," he said, "I'm sorry! I can only stay a few days. I wanted to
get acquainted as quickly as possible."
A still small voice whispered to Colina that this was a young man after
her own heart. Aloud she remarked languidly: "How about me? Perhaps I
am not so anxious."
He looked at her doubtfully, not quite knowing how to take this.
"Really he is too simple!" thought Colina.
"Of course I knew I would have to take my chance," he said. "I didn't
expect you to be waiting on the bank with a brass band and a wreath of
flowers!"
He smiled so boyishly that Colina, in spite of herself, was obliged to
smile back. Suddenly the absurd image caused them to burst out
laughing simultaneously--and Colina felt herself lost.
Laughter was as dangerous as a train of gunpowder. Even while he
laughed Colina saw that look spring out of his eyes--the mysterious
look that made her feel faint and helpless.
He leaned toward her and a still more candid avowal trembled on his
lips. Colina saw it coming. Her look of panic-terror restrained him.
He closed his mouth firmly and turned away his head.
Presently he offered her a breast of prairie chicken with a
matter-of-fact air. She shook her head, and a silence fell between
them--a terrible silence.
"Oh, why don't I go!" thought Colina despairingly.
It was Ambrose who eased the tension by saying comfortably: "It's a
great experience to travel alone. Your senses seem to be more
alert--you take in more."
He went on to tell her about his trip, and Colina lulled to security
almost before she knew it was recounting her own journey in the
preceding autumn. It was astonishing when they stuck to ordinary
matters--how like old friends they felt. Things did not need to be
explained.
It provided Colina with a good opportunity to retire. She rose.
Ambrose's face fell absurdly. "Must you go?" he said.
"I suppose I will meet you officially--later," she said.
He raised a pair of perplexed eyes to her face. "I never thought about
an introduction," he said quite humbly. "You see we never had any
ladies up here."
In the light of his uncertainty Colina felt more assured. "Oh, we're
sufficiently introduced by this time," she said offhand.
"But--what should I do at the fort?" he asked. "How can I see you
again?"
She smiled with a touch of scorn at his simplicity. "That is for you
to contrive. You will naturally call on my father; if he likes you, he
will bring you home to dinner."
Ambrose smiled with obscure meaning. "He will never do that," he said.
"Why not?" demanded Colina.
"My partner and I are free-traders," he explained; "the only
free-traders of any account in the Company's territory. Naturally they
are bitter against us."
"But business is one thing and hospitality another," said Colina.
"You do not know what hard feeling there is in the fur trade," he
suggested.
"You do not know my father," she retorted.
"Only by reputation," said Ambrose.
The shade of meaning in his voice was not lost on her. Her cheeks
became warm. "All white men who come to the post dine with us as a
matter of course," she said. "We owe you the hospitality. I invite
you now in his name and my own."
"I would rather you asked him about me first," said Ambrose.
This made Colina really angry. "I do not consult him about household
matters," she said stiffly.
"Of course not," said Ambrose; "but in this case I would be more
comfortable if you spoke to him first."
"Are you afraid of him?" she inquired with raised eyebrows.
"No," said Ambrose coolly; "but I don't want to get you into trouble."
Colina's eyes snapped. "Thank you," she said; "you needn't be anxious.
You had better come--we dine at seven."
"I will be there," he said.
By this time she was mounted. As she gave Ginger his head Ambrose
deftly caught her hand and kissed it. Colina was not displeased. If
it had been self-consciously done she would have fumed.
She rode home with an uncomfortable little thought nagging at her
breast. Was he really so simple as she had decided? Had he not baited
her into losing her temper--and insisting on his coming to dinner?
Surely he could not know her so well as that!
"Anyway, he _is_ coming!" she thought with a little gush of
satisfaction she did not stop to examine. "I'll wear evening dress,
the black taffeta, and my string of pearls. At my own table it will be
easier--and with father there to support me! We will see!"