Presently, tiring of the piano, she got up and, leaning in the doorway, regarded him with serious, appraising eyes.
"Man," she said solemnly, "'tis th' grand voice that ye have--singin' away all on your lonesome."
And, dropping the brogue, she quoted, to his intense amusement and surprise, a well-worn verse from "Omar Khayyám."
"So," said Ellis, with a delighted chuckle, as the daring and utter absurdity of the quotation, under the circumstances, struck him, "it's kind of you to suggest it. All the ingredients are at hand, too, except the 'Flask of Wine,' 'Wilderness enow,' particularly.... Sorry about the Wine, though, after that compliment. Unfortunately, we're strictly 'on the tack,' as we call it, just now. Oh, 'Barkis is willin',' all right."
He cleared the books and papers off the table in the living-room and, spreading out the simple repast that he had prepared for her, drew up a chair.
"Grub pi-i-ile!" she shrilled, in droll imitation of a camp cookee; and, seating herself, she attacked the frugal meal with a healthy appetite that fully demonstrated her previous admission that she was hungry.
"Sorry I forgot to ask whether you'd have tea or coffee," he said apologetically. "I've made you coffee."
"Oh, that's all right," she said carelessly. "I much prefer coffee. Thanks. My! but I'm hungry!"
He sat down in one of the easy chairs opposite and, leaning his head back against the leopard skin, watched her with a lively and all-absorbing interest. Her complete self-possession and confidence, and the unconventional manner in which she proceeded to make herself entirely at home in the detachment, amused and astounded him. He remembered the impulsive, winning way that she had come over and spoken to him on the occasion of their first meeting. She was a new type to him and he realized that she was quite out of the ordinary.
She was not "mannish," but there seemed to be a good deal of the irresponsible boy, as it were, left in her. She couldn't be a strolling ex-actress, he reflected. The utter absence of coquetry, the fresh, healthy, open-air look of her, and the mention that she had made of the position she occupied at the Trainors' immediately dispelled that idea. And besides, Dave Trainor's wife was a lady-like, nice woman and--particular. He was a frequent and welcome caller at their ranch--knew them intimately.