o The Woman's ears, made her
very merry; for she herself had an abundant wit, and had spent wild
hours with clever men. She did not resent the playful insolence that
sent a dozen miners to her house in the dead of night with a crimson
flag, which they quietly screwed to her roof; and paint, with which they
deftly put a wide stripe of scarlet round the cornice, and another round
the basement. In the morning, when she saw what had been done, she would
not have the paint removed nor the flag taken down; for, she said, the
stripes looked very well, and the other would show that she was always
at home.

Now, the notable thing was that Heldon, the manager, was in The Woman's
house on the night this was done. Tom Liffey, the lumpish guide and
trapper, saw him go in; and, days afterwards, he said to Pierre: "Divils
me own, but this is a bad hour for Heldon's wife--she with a face like a
princess and eyes like the fear o' God. Nivir a wan did I see like her,
since I came out of Erin with a clatter of hoofs behoind me and a
squall on the sea before. There's wimmin there wid cheeks like roses
and buthermilk, and a touch that'd make y'r heart pound on y'r ribs;
but none that's grander than Heldon's wife. To lave her for that other,
standin' hip-high in her shame, is temptin' the fires of Heaven, that
basted the sinners o' Sodom."

Pierre, pausing between the whiffs of a cigarette, said: "So? But you
know more of catching foxes in winter, and climbing mountains in summer,
and the grip of the arm of an Injin girl, than of these things. You are
young, quite young in the world, Tom Liffey."

"Young I may be with a glint o' grey at me temples from a night o'
trouble beyand in the hills; but I'm the man, an' the only man, that's
climbed to the glacier-top--God's Playground, as they call it: and nivir
a dirty trick have I done to Injin girl or any other; and be damned to
you there!"

"Sometimes I think you are as foolish as Shon McGann," compassionately
replied the half-breed.

"You have almighty virtue, and you did that brave trick of the glacier;
but great men have fallen. You are not dead yet. Still, as you say,
Heldon's wife is noble to see. She is grave and cold, and speaks little;
but there is something in her which is not of the meek of the earth.
Some women say nothing, and suffer and forgive, and take such as Heldon
back to their bosoms; but there are others--I remember a woman--bien,
it is no matter, it was long ago; but t