Lee experienced an inward and involuntary shrinking at that touch.  He no more could have returned the caress than he could have risen off the ground into the air, like those floating figures depicted in sacred paintings.  After all, she was quite capable of stirring a sentiment in his heart—­a sentiment of aversion.

“Go join Imo,” he replied.  “One of the boys will bring the car to the hospital and take you home.  Impossible for me to drive you there to-day.”

That was it—­impossible, literally impossible, for his whole being was in revolt.  The threshold of the door might have been a dead-line; he was unable to cross it, at any rate.  With a stony aspect he watched her depart and wave a hand back at him from a distance and at last disappear.  Then he closed the door and leaned his head against it, with his features drawn in an expression of pain and desperation.  His position was diabolical.  She meant to hold him to his word; she believed he loved her; and, anyway, she had him fast in a coil.  Yes, she had him fast.  And he did not love her, not at all.  On the contrary, he detested her—­detested her with all his heart, almost to hatred, utterly.

CHAPTER XXIII

“Will you be so kind as to come here?” Mr. Menocal inquired of Bryant.

It was an afternoon in late January, and the banker, bundled in a great overcoat and numerous rugs, had reined his team to a halt at the spot where he found the engineer.  The air was cutting.  Steam in sharp jets came from the nostrils of his pair of bays, as from those of the horses straining at the plows and scrapers in the stretch of partially excavated canal near by.

Lee went forward to the buggy, slapping his gloved hands together to quicken their circulation.

“What do you want of me, Mr. Menocal?” he asked.  “You’re picking a frosty day to look at the scenery.”

“Well, there’s a matter that’s been troubling my mind for some time and I decided to let it go no longer.  We have our differences, Mr. Bryant, but I wouldn’t wish you to believe me responsible for a number of annoyances to which you’ve been put.  I am a gentleman; I fight fair.  For instance, I was quite within my rights in suggesting those men take homesteads down yonder along the base of the mountains, though I was wrong in my guess.  Also, in taking advantage of the law under which you were limited by the Land and Water Board, I wasn’t stepping out of bounds.  But I’ve learned that some time ago a man introduced whisky into camp against your rules, and I wish to tell you that I knew nothing of it at the time and would countenance no sort of disgraceful act like that.”

“I judged that you wouldn’t,” said Lee.