After an instant Galen Albret turned slowly his massive head and looked at her. He made no other movement, yet she staggered back as though she had received a violent blow on the chest.
Still slowly, gropingly, he arose to his feet, holding tight to the edge of the table. Behind him unheeded the rough-built arm-chair crashed to the floor. He stood there upright and motionless, looking straight before him, his face formidable. At first his speech was disjointed. The words came in widely punctuated2 gasps3. Then, as the wave of his emotion rolled back from the poise4 into which the first shock of anger had thrown it, it escaped through his lips in a constantly increasing stream of bitter words.
"You--you love him," he cried. "You--my daughter! You have been--a traitor--to me! You have dared--dared--deny that which my whole life has affirmed! My own flesh and blood--when I thought the nearest _metis_ of them all more loyal! You love this man--this man who has insulted me, mocked me! You have taken his part against me! You have deliberately5 placed yourself in the class of those I would hang for such an offence! If you were not my daughter I would hang you. Hang my own child!" Suddenly his rage flared6. "You little fool! Do you dare set your judgment7 against mine? Do you dare interfere8 where I think well? Do you dare deny my will? By the eternal, I'll show you, old as you are, that you have still a father! Get to your room! Out of my sight!" He took two steps forward, and so his eye fell on Ned Trent. He uttered a scream of rage, and reached for the pistol. Fortunately the abruptness9 of his movement when he arose had knocked it to the floor, so now in the blindness of a red anger he could not see it. He shrieked10 out an epithet11 and jumped forward, his arm drawn12 to strike. Ned Trent leaped back into an attitude of defence.
All three of those present had many times seen Galen Albret possessed13 by his noted14 fits of anger, so striking in contrast to his ordinary contained passivity. But always, though evidently in a white heat of rage and given to violent action and decision, he had retained the clearest command of his faculties15, issuing coherent and dreaded16 orders to those about him. Now he had become a raging wild beast. And for the spectators the sight had all the horror of the unprecedented17.
But the younger man, too, had gradually heated to the point where his ordinary careless indifference18 could give off sparks. The interview had been baffling, the threats real and unjust, the turn of affairs when Virginia Albret entered the room most exasperating19 on the side of the undesirable20 and unforeseen. In foiled escape, in thwarted21 expedient22, his emotions had been many times excited, and then eddied23 back on themselves. The potentialities of as blind an anger as that of Galen Albret were in him. It only needed a touch to loose the flood. The physical threat of a blow supplied that touch. As the two men faced each other both were ripe for the extreme of recklessness.
But while Galen Albret looked to nothing less than murder, the Free-Trader's individual genius turned to dead defiance24 and resistance of will. While Galen Albret's countenance25 reflected the height of passion, Trent was as smiling and cool and debonair26 as though he had at that moment received from the older man an extraordinary and particular favor. Only his eyes shot a baleful blue flame, and his words, calmly enough delivered, showed the extent to which his passion had cast policy to the winds.
"Don't go too far! I warn you!" said he.
As though the words had projected him bodily forward, Galen Albret sprang to deliver his blow. The Free Trader ducked rapidly, threw his shoulder across the middle of the older man's body, and by the very superiority of his position forced his antagonist27 to give ground. That the struggle would have then continued body to body there can be no doubt, had it not been for the fact that the Factor's retrogressive movement brought his knees sharply against the edge of a chair standing28 near the side of the table. Albret lost his balance, wavered, and finally sat down violently. Ned Trent promptly29 pinned him by the shoulder into powerless immobility. Me-en-gan had possessed himself of the fallen pistol, but beyond keeping a generally wary30 eye out for dangerous developments, did not offer to interfere. Your Indian is in such a crisis a disciplinarian, and he had received no orders.
"Now," said Ned Trent, acidly, "I think this will stop right here. You do not cut a very good figure, my dear sir," he laughed a little. "You haven't cut a very good figure from the beginning, you know. You forbade me to do various things, and I have done them all. I traded with your Indians. I came and went in your country. Do you think I have not been here often before I was caught? And you forbade me to see your daughter again. I saw her that very evening, and the next morning and the next evening."
He stood, still holding Galen Albret immovably in the chair, looking steadily31 and angrily into the Factor's eyes, driving each word home with the weight of his contained passion. The girl touched his arm.
"Hush32! oh, hush!" she cried in a panic. "Do not anger him further!"
"When you forbade me to make love to her," he continued, unheeding, "I laughed at you." With a sudden, swift motion of his left arm he drew her to him and touched her forehead with his lips. "Look! Your commands have been rather ridiculous, sir. I seem to have had the upper hand of you from first to last. Incidentally you have my life. Oh, welcome! That is small pay and little satisfaction."
He threw himself from the Factor and stepped back.
Galen Albret sat still without attempting to renew the struggle. The enforced few moments of inaction had restored to him his self-control. He was still deeply angered, but the insanity33 of rage had left him. Outwardly he was himself again. Only a rapid heaving of his chest answered Ned Trent's quick breathing, as the two men glared defiantly34 at each other in the pause that followed.
"Very well, sir," said the Factor, curtly35, at last. "Your time is over. I find it unnecessary to hang you. You will start on your _Longue Traverse_ to-day."
"Oh!" cried Virginia, in a low voice of agony, and fluttered to her lover's side.
"Hush! hush!" he soothed36 her. "There is a chance."
"You think so?" broke in Galen Albret, harshly. And looking at his set face and blazing eyes, they saw that there was no chance. The Free Trader shrugged37 his shoulders.
"You are going to do this thing, father," appealed Virginia, "after what I have told you?"
"My mind is made up."
"I shall not survive him, father!" she threatened, in a low voice. Then, as the Factor did not respond, "Do not misunderstand me. I do not intend to survive him."
"Silence! silence! silence!" cried Galen Albret, in a crescendo38 outburst. "Silence! I will not be gainsaid39! You have made your choice! You are no longer a daughter of mine!"
"Father!" cried Virginia, faintly, her lips going pale.
"Don't speak to me! Don't look at me! Get out of here! Get out of the place! I won't have you here another day--another hour! By--"
The girl hesitated for a moment, then ran to him, sinking on her knees, and clasping his hand.
"Father," she pleaded, "you are not yourself. This has been very trying to you. To-morrow you will be sorry. But then it will be too late. Think, while there is yet time. He has not committed a crime. You yourself told me he was a man of intelligence and daring--a gentleman; and surely, though he has been hasty, he has acted with a brave spirit through it all. See, he will promise you to go away quietly, to say nothing of all this, never to come into this country again without your permission. He will do this if I ask him, for he loves me. Look at me, father. Are you going to treat your little girl so--your Virginia? You have never refused me anything before. And this is the greatest thing in all my life." She held his hand to her cheek and stroked it, murmuring little feminine, caressing40 phrases, secure in her power of witchery, which had never failed her before. The sound of her own voice reassured41 her, the quietude of the man she pleaded with. A lifetime of petting, of indulgence, threw its soothing42 influence over her perturbation, convincing her that somehow all this storm and stress must be phantasmagoric--a dream from which she was even now awakening43 into a clearer day of happiness. "For you love me, father," she concluded, and looked up daintily, with a pathetic, coquettish tilt44 of her fair head, to peer into his face.
Galen Albret snarled45 like a wild beast, throwing aside the girl, as he did the chair in which he had been sitting. Ned Trent caught her, reeling, in his arms.
For, as is often the case with passionate46 but strong temperaments47, though the Factor had attained48 a certain calm of control, the turmoil49 of his deeper anger had not been in the least stilled. Over it a crust of determination had formed--the determination to make an end by the directest means in his autocratic power of this galling50 opposition51. The girl's pleading, instead of appealing to him, had in reality but stirred his fury the more profoundly. It had added a new fuel element to the fire. Heretofore his consciousness had felt merely the thwarting52 of his pride, his authority, his right to loyalty53. Now his daughter's entreaty54 brought home to him the bitter realization55 that he had been attained on another side--that of his family affection. This man had also killed for him his only child. For the child had renounced56 him, had thrust him outside herself into the lonely and ruined temple of his pride. At the first thought his face twisted with emotion, then hardened to cold malice57.
"Love you!" he cried. "Love you! An unnatural58 child! An ingrate59! One who turns from me so lightly!" He laughed bitterly, eyeing her with chilling scrutiny60. "You dare recall my love for you!" Suddenly he stood upright, levelling a heavy, trembling arm at her. "You think an appeal to my love will save him! Fool!"
Virginia's breath caught in her throat. She straightened, clutched the neckband of her gown. Then her head fell slowly forward. She had fainted in her lover's arms.
They stood exactly so for an appreciable61 interval62, bewildered by the suddenness of this outcome; Galen Albret's hand out-stretched in denunciation; the girl like a broken lily, supported in the young man's arms; he searching her face passionately63 for a sign of life; Me-en-gan, straight and sorrowful, again at the door.
Then the old man's arm dropped slowly. His gaze wavered. The lines of his face relaxed. Twice he made an effort to turn away. All at once his stubborn spirit broke; he uttered a cry, and sprang forward to snatch the unconscious form hungrily into his bear clasp, searching the girl's face, muttering incoherent things.
"Quick!" he cried, aloud, the guttural sounds jostling one another in his throat. "Get Wishkobun, quick!"
Ned Trent looked at him with steady scorn, his arms folded.
"Ah!" he dropped distinctly in deliberate monosyllables across the surcharged atmosphere of the scene. "So it seems you have found your heart, my friend!"
Galen Albret glared wildly at him over the girl's fair head.
"She is my daughter," he mumbled64.
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1
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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eddied
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| 起漩涡，旋转( eddy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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debonair
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| adj.殷勤的，快乐的 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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crescendo
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| n.(音乐)渐强，高潮 | |
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gainsaid
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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43
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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45
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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46
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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47
temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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48
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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49
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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50
galling
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| adj.难堪的,使烦恼的,使焦躁的 | |
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51
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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52
thwarting
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| 阻挠( thwart的现在分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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53
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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54
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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55
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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56
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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57
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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ingrate
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| n.忘恩负义的人 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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64
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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