Not that he greatly cared; oh, no! still, it was an
entirely new experience; the arrow went deeper than he would have
willingly admitted. Men of middle age, gray hairs already commencing
to shade their temples, are not apt to enjoy being openly despised by
young women, not even by ordinary freckle-faced girls, clad in coarse
short frocks. Yet he could think of no fitting retort worth the
speaking, and consequently he simply lay back, seeking to treat this
disagreeable creature with that silent contempt which is the last
resort of the vanquished.
He was little inclined to admit, even to himself, that he had been
fairly hit, yet the truth remained that this girl was beginning to
interest him oddly. He admired her sturdy independence, her audacity
of speech, her unqualified frankness. Mr. Hampton was a thoroughgoing
sport, and no quality was quite so apt to appeal to him as dead
gameness. He glanced surreptitiously aside at her once more, but there
was no sign of relenting in the averted face. He rested lower against
the rock, his face upturned toward the sky, and thought. He was
becoming vaguely aware that something entirely new, and rather
unwelcome, had crept into his life during that last fateful half-hour.
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