daunting, but he understood why she had told him he made her cheap. She
meant to keep her caresses for her husband or declared lover, and if he
wanted her, he must pay the regular price. This was very proper, from
her point of view, but from his the price was high.

Sadie was pretty, capable, and amusing, but he was not sure he would
like to see her every day, in his house and at his table. Besides, the
house would really be hers, and Sadie would not forget this. She was
determined and liked her own way. He had promised to marry another girl,
of a very different stamp, but his conscience was clear on that point.
It was better for Helen's sake that he should give her up, because he
was on the edge of ruin and she was much too good for him. Irresolution,
however, was perhaps his greatest failing, and now he must decide, he
wavered and thought about what he had lost.

There were days when he would not admit that all was lost, and
harnessing his team in the early morning, drove the gang-plow through
the soil until the red sunset faded off the plain. In his heart, he
knew the fight was hopeless; Festing, for example, in his place, might
perhaps make good, but he had not the stamina for the long struggle.
All the same, he worked with savage energy until his mood changed and
he went off to hunt sandhill cranes. He would sooner have gone to the
poolroom, but there was a risk of his meeting Sadie at the settlement.

In the meantime the days got warmer and a flush of vivid green spread
across the grass. The roaring wind that swept the tableland drove clouds
that never broke across the dazzling sky, and where there were belts
of plowed land the harrows clanked across the furrows amidst a haze of
blowing dust. The ducks and geese had gone, and red lilies began to sway
above the rolling waves of grass. Farmer and hired man worked with tense