Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/198

 that your familiarity is insulting, that you, yourself, are odious to me?"

"Odious?"

The word stung his vanity. He, too, arose.

Nan repeated it. "Exactly—odious!"

For a moment he was at a loss for a reply; then he neered:

"I am not so handsome as my foreman, to be sure." He noted her heightened color with satisfaction. The rumors were true, then? She was interested in Ben Evans. The attraction was not wholly on his side, as he had fancied. This he was glad to know.

"I presume," Nan's eyes narrowed as she said slowly and distinctly, "there never yet was a woman who tolerated a bounder that did not pay dearly for it. I have paid well for my brief acquaintance with you."

"Look here, little girl" Spiser's tone was conciliating; he was not ready to admit failure.

Nan half turned.

"Will you go or must I?"

Spiser studied her face a moment. Undoubtedly she was sincere. There was no woman's coquetry in her contemptuous eyes.