Page:Son of the wind.djvu/121

RV 109 his ears as an argument. He sensed discordances in it. He fancied long questions and short answers. He got out of saddle and stood restively, every moment glancing behind him. It was monstrous to take time for discussion of domestic problems now with the golden point of the morning already turning pale.

At last the door at the end of the hall opened and let through immediate and near the sound of Mrs. Rader's voice. Blanche Rader was coming out, her hat pulled hard on her head and drawing on her gauntlets. But her mother had followed her, was still speaking to her, and had made her pause to listen by the natural expedient of clasping a hand around her daughter's arm. Held, arrested, the girl stood, still fronted for the door, but with head flung back, to give her mother an ear. Mrs. Rader was arguing. The girl listened perforce. Her expression was icy obstinacy, disclaiming everything said before it was heard. She made an inaudible, rapid answer, freed herself with the impetuous motion of a colt breaking through a fence, and came on toward him. A little of the fretted, haughty look which the interruption had brought stayed like a blush upon her face and darkened in her eyes, giving her a momentary beauty.

"Headstrong, touchy little devil," he thought,