ilate
each other; but they could not. He knew nothing of women; she nothing
of such men as him. He never smiled; and, when he joked, the joke was
lost in the rumble and grumble of his voice. He caressed her with the
gentleness of a grizzly fondling the hunter, and was nonplussed and set
back when she cried out in pain.

Afraid of him at first, she soon realized that he knew no better, and
responded with the weapons of woman. The man, inured to cold and pain
and fatigue, yet was sensitive as a child when it came to his feelings.
When she learned this, she kept his nerves quivering with quiet smiles,
soft and sarcastic little speeches, and deadening silences, the meaning
of which did not strike him at the time because of his transparent
frankness and honesty.

He became afraid of her; and she, following up her advantage, wheedled
him out of money for clothes, which, though he could not see the need
of them, he cheerfully gave her. He loved her devotedly; and, though he
never smiled, yet he never frowned, nor spoke a harsh word to her.

But she thought him harsh, and, justified by the thought, continued the
marital loot until she grew brave enough to demand a gold watch for
Sammy's birthday.

This was not in his program, and he told her so. Then followed a
lecture on the duties and shortcomings of fathers, which lasted an
hour, and left him shaking like a sick man, sprawled out in the big
chair by the fire, and smoking like a high-pressure tug. But she had
brought him around, and he had arisen to go out to the town's one
jeweler, when she lost all she had won.

"Where are you going?" she asked sharply, as he put on his hat.

"Going out, Minnie," he said, in his jokeless voice, "to get some
catnip for you."

He meant it good-humoredly; but it was taken otherwise. The jeweler had
no gold watches; but, after a two hours' search, he dug up a
wholesaler's catalogue, and, with this in his pocket, Quinbey returned
to have Minnie select a watch from it; but she, her trunks, and her
belongings were gone, while a note on the table apprised him that she
would live with no man who called her a cat.

Troubled in mind, he followed her to the home of her parents, but he
was not admitted--nor given a chance to show her the catalogue.

He slept on the problem, and in the morning resolved that a little
absence would be good for her; so, as the season had opened, he packed
his bag and went out on a fishing trip with friends of his