Subconsciously he
lifted one hand from the wheel and clenched it; he wagged his head a
very little bit; consequently she knew his thoughts were far away,
and for some reason, not quite clear to her, she would have preferred
that they weren't. As a usual thing, young men did not go wool-
gathering in her presence; so she sought to divert his thoughts to
present company.
"What a perfectly glorious country!" she exclaimed. "Can't we stop
for just a minute to appreciate it?"
"Yes," he replied abstractedly as he descended from the car and sat
at her feet while she drank in the beauty of the scene, "it's a he
country; I love it, and I'm glad to get back to it."
Upon their arrival at the rest-house, however, Bryce cheered up, and
during dinner was very attentive and mildly amusing, although
Shirley's keen wits assured her that this was merely a clever pose
and sustained with difficulty. She was confirmed in this assumption
when, after sitting with him a little on the porch after dinner, she
complained of being weary and bade him good-night. She had scarcely
left him when he called:
"George!"
The half-breed slid out of the darkness and sat down beside him. A
moment later, through the open window of her room just above the
porch where Bryce and George Sea Otter sat, Shirley heard the former
say:
"George, when did you first notice that my father's sight was
beginning to fail?"
"About two years ago, Bryce.
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