NATALIE TRIES HER LUCK
Life at the trading-post might have been a pleasant thing to Angela but
for one patent fact, and this fact was rendered more palpable every hour.
It requires a woman to thoroughly analyze another woman's feelings, and
Angela experienced little difficulty in probing the heart of Natalie. From
the moment when Jim had first stepped through the doorway Angela had been
aware of the fact that all Natalie's interest was centered on him.
She had seen the look of suspense in Natalie's face when Devinne had
inquired of Jim their relationship, and had heard the soft sigh when the
untruthful answer was returned. Hitherto she had imagined love at first
sight to be a mere figure of speech, but not now. It was chiefly that fact
which aroused her anger against Jim. It looked as if he deliberately gave
the lie to encourage these passionate advances of Natalie.
Jim himself was the flower of innocence. Natalie was certainly an
attractive woman, and she had the knack of enhancing her attractiveness by
subtle, and not ungraceful, movement of her body and limbs. But all her
charms were eclipsed by the mystical beauty of Angela. But for her
constant obtrusiveness, it is doubtful whether Jim would have noticed her
prettiness at all. He found the post a pleasant enough place after the
eternal discomforts of the trail, and Devinne a thoroughly good fellow.
He did not fail to notice a queer change in Angela--a relapse into moody
silence, so different from the cheerfulness which she had exhibited in the
immediate past--but ascribed it to the fact that she was still pining for
civilization and the old life. And he meant that she should have this,
despite her resolution to accept nothing from him. Once they touched
Dawson, he meant to get her aboard a boat--by physical force if
necessary--and face the miseries of life without her.
For this purpose he kept intact the wad of notes necessary for her
passage, and sought Devinne with a view to raising money on an article of
great sentimental, and moderate intrinsic, value--the cigarette-case
given him by his old chums at Medicine Bow.
Devinne was amazed when the proposition was put to him. He had no idea
that his guest was reduced to such plights.
"I'll loan you the food with pleasure," he said. "There's no need to part
with something you evidently love."
Jim shook his head.
"What's it worth?"
"Difficult to say--at least a thousand dollars."
"Wal, see here, you loan me five hundred on it with the option of
redeeming it within a year. I'll sure strike gold by then."
Devinne nodded.
"Very well, if you insist. I'll be here until next spring. It'll be
waiting for you any time you drop in."
Jim pocketed the notes and commenced to bargain for several necessaries
apart from the anxiously awaited food.
In the meantime Natalie was preparing for attack. She garbed herself in
her most seductive dress, and assailed Jim as he was leaving Devinne, and
commenced to inveigle him into accompanying her on a walk.
"I was just going to look over some gear in the stores," he explained.
"Oh, but zat can vait. Zee day is so magnifique. Mees Angela, you say to
him hee es to come."
Angela, who had just entered the passage, turned crimson.
"My brother usually pleases himself," she said, and walked away.
A few minutes' artful pleading, and Jim was beaten. It seemed outrageous
to refuse her so small a--pleasure. He got his hat and stalked along
beside her. Angela watched them disappear towards the river.
She felt furious with Jim--furious because he could not see that this
brazen-faced woman was making love to him all the time. The studied
voluptuous movements, the bright lift of the eyes, the mad rush to secure
for him anything she thought he might need--how could any man but a fool
misinterpret these actions? And Jim looked so innocent--too innocent, she
thought. At any rate, he had gone with her on that walk, and anything
might happen--Natalie wouldn't care.
She went out of the house, feeling very wroth and very dejected. Devinne
met her outside the store and smiled in his quiet, pleasant fashion.
"Where's Jim?" he asked.
"I--I think he has gone for a walk with Natalie."
He raised his eyebrows and then laughed.
"Take care of your brother, Miss Conlan. Natalie is a holy terror when she
sets her cap at something. I must confess he's enough to turn any normal
woman's head. Natalie has a weakness for big men. It'll certainly take a
big one to keep her in order."
Angela forced a smile into her features, and went away feeling more
miserable than ever. What might not a woman, well versed in love-making,
succeed in achieving with an ingenuous fellow like Jim! And she was pretty
too...!
It was three hours later when Jim and Natalie returned. Angela saw them
coming up through the woods, Natalie chattering away in her broken English
and Jim laughing amusedly. She wondered what had been the outcome of that
journey. Had Jim proved an easy victim to Natalie's attractions? Judging
by the latter's behavior it looked like it. Natalie seemed very happy and
very sure of herself.
It gave Angela food for considerable reflection. If Jim chose to fall in
love with the woman, could she--Angela--have any objection? Their
relationship all through had been that of master and chattel, and must
remain so in the circumstances. She had let him see that she regarded
herself merely as his purchased possession, by a contract wherein love had
not entered--on her part. Why should he not make love to another woman if
he chose? Why not, indeed? But it hurt nevertheless.
In the evening, returning from a walk along the river, she met Natalie
gathering spring flowers in the woods beyond the house. The latter
welcomed her excitedly and took her arm familiarly.
"Is it that you go to-morrow?" she asked.
"If the food comes Jim is anxious to get to Dawson."
Natalie shot her a swift glance.
"To see you on zee boat?"
Angela gasped and stood still.
"I don't understand you. What boat?"
Natalie raised her eyebrows.
"Ees eet not so?"
"No."
"But he tell papa--yes. He say eet ees no place for you--ziss terr-ble
climate. And you are so beautiful."
Angela felt as though a cold hand had suddenly gripped her heart. So it
had come to that in less than two days!
"You are mistaken," she said.
"But zat is strange. But, ma cherie, would not you be glad to get away?"
Angela made no reply. She felt as though she was choking. They entered the
house and found Jim talking with Devinne.
Later she had an opportunity of speaking to him in private.
"Are we leaving to-morrow?" she asked.
"Sure."
"For Dawson?"
"Yes."
"And what then?"
She saw his lips tighten, and the delay in replying told her that Natalie
was right.
"I'm going to send you back to England," he said slowly.
"No."
"Yes."
"I won't go."
"You must. Angela, be reasonable. I'm broke, dead broke. I ought never to
have brought you here, but I expected to be successful--and I ain't."
"Is that why you want me to go back?"
"Of course. You--you wanted your freedom, and I'm giving it to you."
"I told you I could take nothing from you."
"You've got to take this. Angela, you must forget all about that--other
matter."
"How can I forget, when for a year you have constantly reminded me of it?
If you put me on that steamer I'll get off at the first stopping-place and
come back to you. You bought me and you've got to keep me until the debt
is paid, no matter how--unhappy it may make you."
He smiled as he reflected that she thought her presence could make him
unhappy, when his whole soul craved for her.
"Maybe it is someone else's happiness I am thinking of," he said quietly.
Someone else! The little green god within her seized on the remark. She
confronted him with blazing eyes.
"I knew it!" she said. "But you might have been honest--you might have
told me the truth. Oh God! and I've suffered all that--all that----"
The voice of Natalie came, singing, up the passage. Without another word
Angela went to her room, leaving Jim bewildered by this strange outburst.
It was late in the evening, and a full moon sailed in the clear sky. The
night was remarkably warm, and Devinne and Natalie and Jim were sitting on
the veranda which skirted the south side of the house. Jim sat in a brown
study, pondering over Angela's changed attitude. Devinne, as if by some
pre-arranged plan, silently vanished into the house. Jim was suddenly
brought to his senses by feeling Natalie's soft hand on his.
"You are verra--vat you call him--preoccupied, eh?"
"I was thinking."
"Of what?"
"Oh, of many things."
"The future?"
"Sure! It's that that's got me beat."
Her hand tightened on his.
"Why should you care for the future? Ees not zee present--beautiful?"
"Aye--if it could be always the present," he muttered.
"But zee future can be verra beautiful if one wishes so. Eet ees for you
and for me to make zat future jus lak heaven!"
Jim pulled himself up with a jerk. It was not the words that affected him
so much as the blaze of quick passion in her eyes.
"There's only one heaven for me, and I guess I've fallen out of it," he
said. "Let us go in."
"No, no! The night is so wonderful--all, all is wonderful. Everywhere zere
ees love--in zee trees, in zee wind. Do you not feel him?"
If Jim felt anything at all it was blue fear. He came to see the position
as it was. She believed him a free man--even believed he might love her.
The seemingly trivial actions of the afternoon became newly interpreted.
Before he could get his breath Natalie rose to the occasion.
"You vill come back to-morrow after zee boat has gone? It has been so
beautiful, zese two days. Say you vill come back!"
"Natalie!" he gasped.
She flung her arms round his neck and pressed her face to his.
"Ees eet zat I am too bold for your Eenglish ways? But I am not
ashamed--no. I love you--oh, so much!----"
With a gasp he unlinked her arms and stood up.
"Natalie, what are you saying?"
"Why should I not say zat I love you?" she retorted hotly.
"You love me!" he muttered. "By God--I never dreamed----"
"Oh, Jeem!"
"Stop!" he roared. "Listen here, you'd better know the truth. I'm
married!"
"Married?" she almost screamed.
"Jest that."
She stood up, all her wonderful castles strewn before her.
"Mon Dieu!" she groaned. "Mon Dieu!"
There was a sound from behind, and a figure slipped from out of the
gloom--Angela. She stood facing them, her breast heaving under her
emotions. Jim, seizing the opportunity, vanished into the house sick at
the thought that Angela should have heard.
Angela approached Natalie and placed her arm round the latter's waist.
"Natalie," she said, "I couldn't help hearing."
"You--you heard?"
"Yes. And I had a right to hear."
"No one had a right----"
"Yes, someone had--his wife."
"You--his wife?"
Angela inclined her head.
"But he say you are his sister--and you act like that."
The problem became clearer to her. "Ah, I see--he say that because he do
not want to cause you embarrassment--because you do not love him."
Angela turned to her in righteous indignation.
"You don't understand--he bought me, with money. I--I can't explain....
But I am sorry this has happened."
Natalie wiped away a tear, sniffed, and then composed herself.
"I vill try to forget," she said. "I am verra glad eet ees you--for you
are so beautiful.... But I vish it was me he bought," she added wistfully.