What had come of all my studies?
Not so much as I was learning now, here in the open, with this sweet
savage woman whose leggins tinkled as she rode, whose tunic swelled
softly, whose jaw was clean and brown. How weak the precepts of the
social covenant seemed. How feeble and far away the old world we too had
known. And how infinitely sweet, how compellingly necessary now seemed
to me this new, sweet world that swept around us now.
We rode on, side by side, knee to knee. Her garments rustled and
tinkled.
Her voice awoke me from my brooding. "I wish, Mr. Cowles," said she,
"that if you are strong enough and can do so without discomfort, you
would ride with me each day when I ride."
"Why?" I asked. That was the wish in my own mind; but I knew her reason
was not the same as mine.
"Because," she said. She looked at me, but would not answer farther.
"You ought to tell me," I said quietly.
"Because it is prescribed for you."
"Not by my doctor." I shook my head. "Why, then?"
"Stupid--oh, very stupid officer and gentleman!" she aid, smiling
slowly. "Lieutenant Belknap has his duties to look after; and as for Mr.
Orme, I am not sure he is either officer or gentleman.
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