258 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



reason, for she has an admirable reason for every- 

 thing ? Oh, never mind the reason ! Drink the red 

 wine! Carpe diem! 



"Don't you hope they get engaged at last?" I 

 asked the Leader, as I watched him cleaning his big 

 moose head. 



" Yes, I do," he answered, with enthusiasm for 

 such a misogynist. " We must have a disaster of 

 some magnitude before we can find an adequate excuse 

 to open the last of the bottles of emergency cham- 

 pagne." 



Then what a squabble royal ! I don't know which 

 of us enjoyed it the most. We were not capable of 

 paying each other off, for there was no antagonism 

 between us. We fought with our wits, not with our 

 hearts. Are we human beings capable of hurting 

 what we love in our inmost hearts? Do you not 

 think that to inflict a smart by way of retaliation 

 argues that the heart does not really love? To be 

 piqued is one thing, to seek revenge is another. 

 Sometimes little hurts are given by accident, they 

 are trifles and soon heal. There is no wound so 

 deadly as one given by design. 



We opened the champagne that night. Cecily had 

 met her Waterloo. 



A woman's devotion is a wonderful thing, perhaps 

 the most beautiful thing in this world. She seems 

 to play with love for a time, then gives a little, then 

 takes it back, then she pretends, then she won't give 

 any, then from pity spares a particle, then she is 

 sorry, then she doesn't know her own mind, and at 



