Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/112

104 I'm so ignorant that I don't know anything about my own business!"

She sat back in her chair.

"I've been wondering if you'd wake up," she said quietly.

"Wondering! I didn't suppose you took time to think about me."

She traced a line on the blotter before her with a dry pen.

"I've had lots of time to think about you, John Taylor. A lot of time to wonder about you—and not enough time to make up my mind. I've never known many kinds of people; I've never known any one like you. I thought I sized you up the first time I saw you and I haven't had much evidence to change my opinion. Women are supposed to have a certain keen intuition; perhaps we have; perhaps that has kept me wondering if you wouldn't wake up.

"Sit down."

He took a chair and she folded her arms, looking squarely at him.

"Most people I have known don't wonder about themselves and so they don't understand themselves. That morning when we went to look at your logs you told me more about yourself than any—stranger ever has. What you said backed up my first impression, but because you said it made me suspect that something had given you a jolt. Ever since, I've been wondering if you'd be content to hang around the edges and let circumstances make a boomerang of your father's trick."

She stopped, and Taylor smiled gravely.

"Circumstances?" he asked. "You mean you've