me. I'll get supper for us two here, if you like,
and afterward we can go over, and you can introduce me to your men as
the new cook. I hope they'll like me as well as Pierre."

He looked at her still as if she were behaving in a very unexpected
way. A tamed Marjorie was something new in his experience; and
tameness at this juncture was particularly surprising. Francis was
beginning to feel like a brute, which may have been what his wife
intended.

"That's very kind of you," he managed to say. "You're sure you are not
too tired for any of that?"

"Being tired isn't going to count, is it?" she asked, smiling. "No, I
don't mind doing it. It will be like playing with a doll-house. You
know, I love this little place."

In her wicked heart she was thinking, "He shall miss me--oh, if I can
keep my temper and be perfectly lovely for three months he shall miss
me so when I go and get my divorce that he will want to _die_!" And
she looked up at him, one hand on the banjo, as if they were the best
friends in the world.

"It isn't time to get supper yet, is it?" she pursued. "You used to
like to hear me sing. Don't you want to sit down here by me while I
see how the banjo works, just for a little while?"

"No!" said Francis abruptly. "I have to--I have to go and see after a
lot more work."

He flung out the door, and it crashed after him. And Marjorie laughed
softly and naughtily to herself over the banjo, and pushed the note
that had dwelt within farther down inside her dress. "I wish I had the
rest!" said she. "Let me see. The kodak was for both of us to go out
and take pictures together, of course. The snowshoes--that would have
had to wait till winter. The basket and trowel were so we could plant
lots of lovely woodsy things we found around the cabin, to see if they
would take root. And he must have been going to teach me to fish. I
wonder why he wasn't going to teach me to shoot. There must be a rifle
somewhere--maybe it hasn't lost its note, if it was hidden hard enough.
And he remembered how I liked 'surprises.' He certainly would have
made a good lover if I hadn't----"

She did not finish. She got up and hunted for the rifle, which was not
to be found. Then she went into the kitchen and hunted for stores, and
wondered how on earth a balanced menu could be evolved from cans and
dried things exclusively. But the discovery of a cache of canned
vegetables helped her out, and as she really was