Page:Son of the wind.djvu/37

 keep alive a conversation with a man, and a stranger, was a burden to her. He watched her, bolt upright, wrestling with the problem of his intellectual entertainment as if they were at a dinner of state. He wondered whether her extreme formality was due to shyness on her part, or some idiosyncrasy of his that made her uneasy.

She let her end of the conversation flag and, for lack of his response, fall; and made that scarcely perceptible stir that women do before rising. He had heard it rustle in satin skirts, around far-off dinner tables, as he heard it now in the calico gown of this woman of the broom.

He leaned forward and stopped her with a question that seemed in no way designed to stop her. "Is there much hunting around here, Mrs. Rader?"

"There's lots of game, if that's what you mean," she said, "but almost no one ever comes up so far. If you're going higher up still I'm afraid you'll find it very lonely."

The idea of going hunting for company's sake tickled Carron. "Then perhaps you'll let me stay on here a few days," he suggested.

"Oh, I'm afraid—" she began.

"Perhaps Mr. Rader can take a day off, and give me more points about this part of the country than my guide can."