ugh to suggest.

With a stare that strongly reminded me of her father she slowly said:

"In trade? Why not? Trade is most honorable. The world is built up on
trade. Men in trade usually have means. They have comfortable homes. They
can give advantages to those dependent upon them. Trade? Why, the average
woman would prefer a trader to the wanderer, who owns only his rifle and
what game he shoots."

"Patsy, that is downright savagery," I warmly accused. "Come, be your old
self. We used to be mighty good friends three years ago. Be honest with
me. Didn't you like me back in Williamsburg?"

The pink of her cheeks deepened, but she quietly countered:

"Why, Basdel, I like you now. If I didn't I never would bother to speak
plainly to you."

Three years' picture-painting was turning out to be dream-stuff. I tried
to tell myself I was foolish to love one so much like Ericus Dale; but the
lure was there and I could no more resist it than a bear can keep away
from a honey-tree.

She had shown herself to be contemptuous in reviewing the little I had
done. She was blind to the glory of to-morrow and more than filled with
absurd crotchets, and yet there was but one woman in America who could
make my heart run away from control. If it couldn't be Patsy Dale it could
be no one.

"Back in Williamsburg, before I made such a mess of my affairs, you knew I
loved you."

"We were children--almost."

"But I've felt the same about you these three years. I've looked ahead to
seeing you. I've--well, Patsy, you can guess how I feel. Do I carry any
hope with me when I go back to the forest?"

The color faded from her face and her eyes were almost wistful as she met
my gaze unflinchingly, and gently asked:

"Basdel, is it fair for a man going back to the forest to carry hope with
him? The man goes once and is gone three years. What if he goes a second
time and is gone another three years? And then what if he comes back,
rifle in hand, and that's all? What has he to offer her? A home in the
wilderness? But what if she has always lived in town and isn't used to
that sort of life?"

"But if she loves the man----"

"But what if she believes she doesn't love him quite enough to take him
and his rifle and live in the woods? Has he any more right to expect that
sacrifice than she has the right to expect him to leave the forest and
rifle and make his home where she always has lived?"

"I suppose not. But I, too, like the scenes and thi