Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/113

 Rh  that you were the champion revolver shot of your division. To such distinction I can only bow in reverence."

She swept me a low curtsey, her laughing eyes smiling in the lamp light. Before I answered, the fire in the grate burst into blaze, and her hands were busily rearranging the table.

"With no servants left, and the house unoccupied for months," she explained, "I shall have to give you soldier fare, and, perhaps, not very much of that. Someone has made free of our larder since we left, from all appearances the same gentleman who broke in through the window, no doubt—and I discovered little remaining even for myself. But such as it is I give it to you. Pardon my not joining in the feast, as I have only just eaten."

She drew up a chair opposite to where I sat, supporting her chin in her hands. The light beween [sic] us illumined her face, outlining it clearly against the gloom of the wall behind. It was a young face, almost girlish in a way, although there was a grave, strong look to the eyes, and womanly firmness about lips and chin. I had seen so little of her in the days gone by as scarcely to retain in memory a detail of her face; she had been to me but a swiftly flashing vision, the merest recollection of bright eyes, and loosened hair flying in the wind. And here I found