She looked at him with growing fascination. Surrounded by the gigantic
things of his own creation he was impressive, but here in the solitudes
he took on even more suggestive characteristics. She stretched out a
slim brown hand.
"You will find me very difficult sometimes, I warn you now."
"I like difficult things, they seem to come my way."
The languid hours sped by. Clark swam, fished, paddled with the girl,
entertained her party in the tug's white painted saloon, and chatted
with Mrs. Dibbott, the chaperon, about St. Marys. But most of all he
explored the mind of Elsie Worden. It was like opening successive
doors to his own intelligence. She startled him with her intuition,
delighted him with her keen sense of humor, and seemed to grasp the
man's complex nature with superlative ease. And, yielding to her
charms, Clark, for the first time in his life, felt that he must go
slow. It was a new country to him. Previous experience had left no
landmarks here.
They were drifting lazily along the shore, miles from the others, when
Elsie, after a long pause, glanced at him curiously.
"Will you tell me just what you find in music?"
"But I don't know anything about it."
"Perhaps not, but you feel it, and that's what counts. I've only heard
you play twice."
"Once," he corrected.
"No, I was out on the bay one night, below the blockhouse, when you
were playing." Belding's name was on the girl's lips but at the moment
Belding did not fit and she went on evenly, "It is something like the
rapids."
"I'm glad you think that. It's the response that one gets."
"That's what I feel. You're an American, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. You see your people are more responsive than we are,
and you don't seem so ashamed of enthusiasm."
"We can't help it, but it's a little awkward sometimes," his eyes
twinkled, "that is in Canada. Now talk about yourself."
"There's so little to say. I was asleep for years like every one else
in St. Marys, till you came and woke us all up.
"And then?"
"I realized that life was rather thin and that I wanted a lot of things
I'll never get."
"Why never,--and what do you want?"
"To be part of something bigger than myself," said the girl very slowly.
Clark felt an answering throb. That was what he had felt and wanted
and achieved.
"To feel what the world feels and know something of what the world
knows," she added intensely. "I want to work."
"That sounds strenuous."