Why did she go so secretly in the evening to see you?
I suppose she loves you!" A sudden red flush of anger coloured his brow.
"Yes"-- he answered with a kind of vindictive slowness--"I suppose she does! You, Manella, are after me as a man merely--she is after me as a Brain! You would steal my physical liberty,--she would steal my innermost thought! And you will both be disappointed! Neither my body nor my brain shall ever be dominated by any woman!" He turned from her abruptly and began the ascent that led to his solitary retreat.

Once he looked back-- "Don't let me see you for two days at least!" he called--"I've more than enough food to keep me going." He strode on, and Manella stood watching him, her tall handsome figure silhouetted against the burning sky.

Her dark eyes were moist with suppressed tears of shame and suffering,--she felt herself to be wronged and slighted undeservedly.

And beneath this personal emotion came now a smarting sense of jealousy, for in spite of all he had said, she felt that there was some secret between him and "the little wonderful white woman," which she could not guess and which was probably the reason of his self-sought exile and seclusion.
"I wish now I had gone with her!" she mused--"for if I am 'quite beautiful,' as she said, she might have helped me in the world,--I might have become a lady!" She walked slowly and dejectedly back to the Plaza, knowing in her heart that lady or no lady, her rich beauty was useless to her, inasmuch as it made no effect on the one man she had elected to care for, unwanted and unasked.

Certain physiologists teach that the law of natural selection is that the female should choose her mate, but the difficulty along this line of argument is that she may choose where her choice is unwelcome and irresponsive.