Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/231

  throw off the man's hand, which still clutched his shoulder good-humoredly, but he was too sensitive, too fearful of giving offense, not through any liking for the man, but because it seemed gauche, boorish, and would fill the air with a sort of rough impulse, shocking to his fine sensitiveness. No doubt he had suffered at times from rebuffs to his own timid advances, and had not enough knowledge of the world and men to keep from putting a coarse, thick-skinned brute like Deshay in his own class of emotions.

"His class—ach! the nervous sensibilities of those two were about as similar as those of a Kentucky thoroughbred and a Galapagos turtle! There are some men who can never get it through their heads that the only way to hurt another man's feelings is with a club.

"When I spoke, Claud glanced down at Dixie, and he saw the danger in the animal's eyes, to which Deshay was quite blind.

" 'Dixie!' said Claud, reprovingly; that [ 215 ]