And then her odd, shrewd speechmade him laugh
outright.
He felthe should not know her if he met her in the
road. She pursed her mouth as if in pain,as if asleep too. March looked round with
big, startled black eyes, and went pale asif with terror. Again the face of the
youth tightened with delighted laughter.
Its no good walking out into the forest andsaying
to the deer: Please fall to my gun. He became very red, vermilion, under the slow,
vague stare frombehind the spectacles. Of Nature altogether, Im afraid, said
Banford.
I dont know what I meant, cried March testilyOh,
Nellie, I hope you arent going jumpy and nervy. A pile of short sawed logs lay
beside thetrestle. A pile of short sawed logs lay beside thetrestle.
Yes, he would have to see howthings
went.
But what will you do when youve used up all your
capital? What made you jump like that this evening? No, Nellie, if youwere to do
such a thing as to marry him, you could never stop here. He loved to be outalone
with the gun in his hands, to watch, to see.
Heseemed near, and she wanted to touch him. Perhaps
you think Ive come to steal your chickens or something,he said, with the same young
laugh. More than it has to do with you, probably, she replied, plaintiveand
venomous. He was very curious about the girls, to find out exactly what theywere
doing. Her plaintive, fretful voice had a thread of hot anger and
despair.
Where am I going to find a place in the village to
stay? And he thought to himself it would be a good thing tohave this place for his
own. The youth looked up at her with his clear, bright look, but did
notspeak.
That was a great addition to theempty larder. Yet
she held her cup balanced, shedrank her tea, screwed up her mouth and held her head
averted. But, with her weak, troubled sight, she only saw the usual semi-abstraction
on her friends face. He saw her stooping to the bright-ended logs, and he
stoppedsawing. He came in only at dinner-time, with the devil still in his face,but
his manners quite polite.
Yet her large eyesdilated and glowed in spite of
her; she lost herself.