"For the moment, perhaps," just a slight bitterness in his tone, "and I
should enjoy it while I can."

She stopped in her work, sitting straight before him. Her eyes were
indignant, yet she stifled the first words that leaped to her lips.
His soft hat lay on the sand and the sun revealed his tanned face,
bringing out its strength.

"You--should n't say that," she faltered. "Surely you do not believe I
will ever become ungrateful."

"No; and yet gratitude is not altogether satisfactory." He hesitated.
"It is hard to explain just what I mean to you, for you do not realize
the life we lead out here--the loneliness of it. Even a man in the
ranks may possess the desires of a human being. I--well, I 'm hungry
for the companionship of a good woman. Don't misunderstand, Miss
McDonald. I am not presuming, nor taking advantage of the accident
which has placed us in this peculiar position, but I have been a
trooper out here now a long while, stationed at little isolated
frontier posts, riding the great plains, doing the little routine
duties of soldiering. I have n't spoken to a decent woman on terms of
social equality for two years; I 've looked at a few from a distance
and taken orders from them. But they have glanced through me as though
I were something inanimate instead of a man. I saved an officer's life
once down there," and he pointed into the southeast, "and his wife
thanked me as though it were a disagreeable duty. I reckon you don't
understand, but I don't like the word gratitude."

"But I do understand," and she stretched out her hand to him across the
opened haversack. "I 'm not so dull, and it must be awful to feel