had any temper different from other women;
but if I'd noticed her eyes, surely I'd have seen it there. There was
something very strange and out of the way about them. They hardly seemed
so bright when you looked at them first; but by degrees, if she got
roused and set up about anything, they'd begin to burn with a steady
sort of glitter that got fiercer and brighter till you'd think they'd
burn everything they looked at. The light in them didn't go out again
in a hurry, either. It seemed as if those wonderful eyes would keep on
shining, whether their owner wished it or not.

I didn't find out all about her nature at once--trust a woman for that.
Vain and fond of pleasure I could see she was; and from having been
always poor, in a worrying, miserable, ill-contented way, she had got
to be hungry for money and jewels and fine clothes; just like a person
that's been starved and shivering with cold longs for a fire and a full
meal and a warm bed. Some people like these things when they can get
them; but others never seem to think about anything else, and would sell
their souls or do anything in the whole world to get what their hearts
are set on. When men are like this they're dangerous, but they hardly
hurt anybody, only themselves. When women are born with hearts of this
sort it's a bad look-out for everybody they come near. Kate Morrison
could see that I had money. She thought I was rich, and she made up her
mind to attract me, and go shares in my property, whatever it might
be. She won over her younger sister, Jeanie, to her plans, and our
acquaintance was part of a regular put-up scheme. Jeanie was a soft,
good-tempered, good-hearted girl, with beautiful fair hair, blue eyes,
and the prettiest mouth in the world. She was as good as she was pretty,
and would have worked away without grumbling in that dismal little shop
from that day to this, if she'd been let alone. She was only just turned
seventeen. She soon got to like Jim a deal too well for her own good,
and used to listen to his talk about the country across the border, and
such simple yarns as he could tell her, poor old Jim! until she said
she'd go and live with him under a salt-bush if he'd come back and marry
her after Christmas. And of course he did promise. He didn't see any
harm in that. He intended to come back if he could, and so did I for
that matter. Well, the long and short of it was that we were both
regularly engaged and had made all kinds of plans to