Chapter 20 - Page 2

it. I dream about it. It is my
dearest desire."

He paused and looked at her with intent significance; but it was
plain to him that she thought there was nothing more at issue than
mutual confidences about things in general.

"Yes, go ahead," she said, a trifle impatient at his delay.

"I love to think of the success of Berande," he said; "but that is
secondary. It is subordinate to the dearest wish, which is that
some day you will share Berande with me in a completer way than
that of mere business partnership. It is for you, some day, when
you are ready, to be my wife."

She started back from him as if she had been stung. Her face went
white on the instant, not from maidenly embarrassment, but from the
anger which he could see flaming in her eyes.

"This taking for granted!--this when I am ready!" she cried
passionately. Then her voice swiftly became cold and steady, and
she talked in the way he imagined she must have talked business
with Morgan and Raff at Guvutu. "Listen to me, Mr. Sheldon. I
like you very well, though you are slow and a muddler; but I want
you to understand, once and for all, that I did not come to the
Solomons to get married. That is an affliction I could have
accumulated at home, without sailing ten thousand miles after it.
I have my own way to make in the world, and I came to the Solomons
to do it. Getting married is not making MY way in the world. It
may do for some women, but not for me, thank you. When I sit down
to talk over the freight on copra, I don't care to have proposals
of marriage sandwiched in. Besides--besides--"

Her voice broke for the moment, and when she went on there was a
note of appeal in it that well-nigh convicted him to himself of
being a brute.

"Don't you see?--it spoils everything; it makes the whole situation
impossible . . . and . . . and I so loved our partnership, and was
proud of it. Don't you see?--I can't go on being your partner if
you make love to me. And I was so happy."

Tears of disappointment were in her eyes, and she caught a swift
sob in her throat.

"I warned you," he said gravely. "Such unusual situations between
men and women cannot endure. I told you so at the beginning."

"Oh, yes; it is quite clear to me what you did." She was angry
again, and the feminine appeal had disappeared. "You were very
discreet in your warning. You took good care to warn me against
every other man in the Solomons except yourself."

It was a blow in the face to Sheldon. He smarted with the truth of
it, and at the same time he smarted with what he was convinced was
the injustice of it. A gleam of triumph that flickered in her eye
because of the hit she had made decided him.

"It is