and had made a fool of himself and hash of the situation; but
temporarily, only temporarily. For, and to this belief he clung more and
more hopefully, the Pearl was too deeply in love with him definitely to
close the affair between them for just one break. He would not, could
not believe that. It was true enough that he had aroused her passionate
and violent anger, but the more violent the anger the sooner it will
evaporate, and strange and complex as the Pearl was, she was yet a
woman; and no woman on earth could long hold resentment against the man
she loved. She had, he was able to convince himself, regretted her mad
action in first threatening and then riding away from him long before
she had reached home; and, without doubt, it was only that high and
haughty pride of hers which kept her from returning to him before she
had traversed half the distance. But the course of action he had decided
upon was sure to win. He would give her a few hours to get over her
anger, to regret it and to reproach herself for causing him pain, and
then he would give her a little more time to long and ache for him to
return to her. He would wait until evening, and then he would go boldly
to the Gallito house and, no matter what efforts were made to frustrate
their meeting, he would see her alone. Ah, and she would fly to him, if
he knew her aright. All the opposition in the world could not keep them
apart, it would only strengthen her determination. And then, how he
would beg her forgiveness, how he would plead his love, with passionate
and irresistible eloquence; and, if he knew the heart of woman, she
would yield.

But when the moment came for acting upon this decision he found that it
took a certain amount of courage, considerable, in fact, to face not
only a woman who had left him in hot anger that morning, but a gnarled
and thorny father and also the soft-spoken Bob Flick; and he decided to
stop at Pete's place and brace up his courage with a drink.