"Again you misinterpreted my speech. I think I said I could not bore you with it until I knew you better."
"And by that I am to understand that you won't tell me?"
The saw cut through the log with a little whine, and the end dropped to the ground.
"You don't know me well enough yet to trust me, I suppose?"
"I know you as well as I suppose I ever shall know you. You are not a difficult person to understand."
"Have you so much experience of my sex, then?"
"More than most men, perhaps. God help me!"
"You don't seem to realise that that is a dangerous admission to make to a woman."
"Why? You let me see very plainly yesterday that our ways lie far apart. In fact, that whatever my rank may once have been, I am now only your father's servant."
She rose from the box on which she had been sitting and stamped her foot. He looked up and saw that indignant tears stood in her eyes.
"You are very unjust and very unkind. I'm sure I never said or implied anything of the sort."
"Then I must crave your pardon once more for misunderstanding you. I certainly understood that to be your meaning."
She sat down again and fell to scraping up the shavings and litter with her foot. He resumed his sawing. For the space of about three minutes neither spoke. Then she said timidly:
"I notice that you are very patient and persevering."
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye suspiciously. This was too novel and satisfactory not to make him a little distrustful.
"For many reasons. One because you don't saw wood like most men I have seen. You go right through till the cut is even and the end drops off of its own weight. Most men saw it three parts through, then drive in a wedge, and break off the rest. It saves time, but it means laziness. I think I like your way best."
"Oh, not at all. I thought as I've scolded you so often I ought to tell you of something I approve, that's all."
Decidedly he was a handsome man. She liked his colour, she liked his glow of health and strength, and she was not quite certain that she did not like his eyes; but she wasn't going to let him think she had the very smallest grain of admiration for him. He wondered what was coming next.
"All the same, you're not a very quick worker. I don't know that it's quite a profitable occupation for you. One of the boys would have done twice as much in half the time--not so neatly perhaps, but it would have burned just as well."