Boyd Cable - By Blow and Kiss

She brought the cushion, and he spread the oilcloth on the floor and the blanket over it. The pillow went in the centre, and he commenced to roll the bundle. Ess went back to her own room at his command.

“Hand mirror, brush, comb, toothbrush,” he called, and presently “Yes” she answered. “Put the basket middle of the room and sling the things in as I call,” he instructed. “Towel and soap.” “Yes.” “Two or three pair of stockings, and a change of under things.” He heard her movements suddenly cease, and the sound of a smothered laugh. Then “Yes” again, very meekly. “That’s all,” he said. “Cram them in, and I’ll strap the basket.”

She brought the basket out. “But how do I wash?” she said. “Don’t I need a basin or anything?”

“Pails in camp,” he said, promptly. “Don’t I need candles?” she asked. “Sun, moon and stars are your candles,” he said, picking up the basket and blankets. “You go to bed in the dark and get up in daylight.” “Uncle has a canvas camp bed here. Can’t I take that? Don’t I have a bed?” she said.

“Make a bed of leaves on the ground. Come along, I assure you there’s nothing else you need,” and they went out to the buggy. “Your saddle, bridle, and a pair of hobbles,” he said, flinging them under the seat. “And now we’re off. See how easy it is?”

They trotted over the Ridge, and Steve snapped his whip about the horses till they broke into a canter.

“Take a grip and hang tight,” said Steve, flicking the horses again.

“Why – are you – in such a hurry?” she jerked out as they bumped and rattled down the slope.

“Oh, this isn’t hurrying,” he assured her easily. “Just a fair pace. I like moving fast as the horses can with comfort. It’ll be slow enough jogging across the flats.”

She said no more till they caught up Blazes and the cart.

“Shake ’em up, Blazey,” he shouted cheerily. “We’ll go on and tell ’em you’re coming. Pull in and give us room to pass.”

“There isn’t room to pass here, surely,” said Ess in alarm, looking at the steep slope below the road, and the bank above it.

“I think so,” said Steve, casually. “We’ll see,” and he laid the whip across the horse’s flanks. They shaved past the cart wheels by a bare inch or two, and on the other side their wheels scraped along the very edge, grinding and rasping and actually dipping over the edge for a few yards. The buggy tilted sharply, but almost before Ess could make a frantic clutch at the sides, they were past the cart, and rattling down the road again.

“After that I think you might almost compliment me on my seat – in a buggy,” she said, demurely.

He looked at her and laughed out loud, but in a moment dropped again to seriousness.

“I didn’t half thank you for that last night,” he said. “It was really plucky as well as kind – ”

“No, no,” she said hastily. “I didn’t mean – don’t let’s talk about it again.”

“But there’s something I want to tell you about it,” he said. “I’m afraid you may not like it, but I ought to tell,” and he told her of the talk, and the bet between Aleck Gault and him.

“Are you angry?” he asked when he had finished.

“Not exactly,” she replied hesitatingly. “Although, of course, a girl doesn’t care about her probable actions being discussed and bet about.”

“Bless you,” he said laughing. “Don’t you know that there’s been nothing else but you discussed ever since you came here?”

“I hadn’t thought of it,” she said, a little startled. “But I suppose it’s understandable… But what made you think I would snub you?” she went on. “You know we’d hardly spoken before.”

They had passed through the gate now, and were moving at a fast trot across the flat.

“I just guessed you would,” he said slowly. “You see I had a notion that you were forewarned, and therefore fore-armed against me.” He shot a sidelong glance at her, and noticed a faint flush on her cheek. She said nothing, however. “I know the reputation I carry round these parts – some of it worse than I deserve, and some of it not as bad; and it was a fair guess that your uncle would warn you against – er – falling in love with me,” he finished coolly.

Ess sat up straight very suddenly.

“You’re rather presuming,” she said quietly, but very coldly. “Do you imagine my uncle thinks I cannot meet a man without falling in love with him? Or is it that you consider yourself so utterly irresistible?”

“That goes with my reputation – deserved or undeserved,” he said imperturbably.

“And of course you believe it, and try to act up to it,” she said in her most sarcastic tones. “May I ask if you’re trying to do so now?”

“Do what?” he asked. “Be irresistible? If so, you can see for yourself that the reputation isn’t deserved. I’m only succeeding in making you thoroughly angry, aren’t I?”

She only closed her lips tightly, and they drove in silence for nearly a mile.

“Look here, Miss Lincoln,” said Steve at last. “It’s rather hopeless for us to keep on like this. We’ll be running across each other every day, and it’s a nuisance for me to have to try to keep dodging you, and I’m sure it must be uncomfortable for you if you have to freeze up and put your nose in the air every time I come along. I haven’t the faintest wish to fall in love with you, and there’s no need for me to have, any more than there is for you – ”

“The latter certainly need not trouble you,” she could not help retorting.

“There you are, then,” he said. “That being understood, can’t we just get along same as you do with the others in camp? Forget my reputation if you can, so long as I don’t obtrude it on you. Just let’s be ordinary friendly. I’ll promise not to fall in love with you – if I can help it …” he saw the shadow of a smile quiver about her lips, and went on: “I assure you I’d be really afraid to fall in love with any girl and especially with you. I’ve been most clearly warned what will be done to me if I do.”

“Done to you? What do you mean?”

“Oh, I’ve had very broad hints as to my conduct from some of the others,” he said lightly.

“How dare they?” said the girl hotly. “As if I was not able to take care of my own affairs.”

“Exactly,” agreed Steve. “But that’s my reputation again, you see. They’re afraid you may go down before my fatal fascination.”

“I hardly know what to make of you,” she said, looking at him curiously. “If another man spoke as you’re doing, about his ‘reputation’ and ‘fascination’ and so on, I’d think him the most insufferably conceited prig. And somehow you don’t seem that.”

“I’m not,” he assured her promptly. “It’s other people who seem to insist that every girl I meet must admire me. I know better, thank Heaven. I don’t want ’em to, and least of all do I want you to. It would be a most confounded nuisance for one thing. You might expect me to take you out walking when I didn’t want to walk and want to go riding with me when I wanted to go by myself, and forbid my going to the township, and expect me to give up drinking and smoking, and think I ought to go and sit in the house with you every evening.”

She could contain herself no longer, and her laugh rang out ripplingly.

“It’s all very well to laugh,” he said reprovingly. “But you know what the average man and girl are when they’re courting. It must be deucedly awkward when they’re living on the same place. It’s all right to be making love to a girl, coming across her at odd times, if there’s nothing else to do, but I fancy it would be too much of a strain to keep it up.”