Page:B M Bower - Heritage of the Sioux.djvu/71

LOVE WORDS FOR ANNIE "I don't see you do moch foreground work since that white girl come," Ramon observed, hitting what he instinctively knew was a tender point.

Had he seen her face, he must have been satisfied that the chance shot struck home. But in the shadow hate blazed unseen from her eyes. She did not speak, and so he went back to his first charge.

"All this don't tell me moch," he complained. "Yoh lov' him, maybe? That's what I ask."

"Wagalexa Conka my brother, my father, my friend," she replied calmly, and let him interpret it as he would.

"He treats yoh like a dog. He crazee 'bout that Jean. He gives her all smiles, all what yoh call foreground stuff. I know—I got eyes. Me, it makes me mad for see how he treat yoh—and yoh so trying hard always to please. He got no heart for yoh—me, I see that." He moved a step closer, hesitating, wanting yet not quite daring to touch her. "Me, I lov' yoh, little Annie," he murmured. "Yoh lov' me little bit, eh? Jus' little bit! Jus' for say, 'Ramon, I go weeth yoh, I be yoh woman—'" 59