Prosper smoked and stood there looking, now at her, now at the fire.
At last, with difficulty, he smiled. "You are not going to make it
easy for me, are you, Joan?"
For her part she was not looking at him. She kept her eyes on the fire
and this averted look distressed and irritated his nerves.
"I am not trying to make it hard," she said; "I want you to say what
you came to say and go."
"Did you ever love me, Joan?"
He had said it to force a look from her, but it had the effect only of
making her more still, if possible.
"I don't know," she said slowly, answering with her old directness. "I
thought you needed me. I was alone. I was scared of the emptiness when
I went out and looked down the valley. I thought Pierre had gone out
of the world and there was no living thing that wanted me. I came back
and you met me and you put your arms round me and you said"--she
closed her eyes and repeated his speech as though she had just heard
it--"'Don't leave me, Joan.'"
Her voice was more than ever before moving and expressive. Prosper
felt that half-forgotten thrill. The muscles of his throat contracted.
"Joan, I did want you. I spoke the truth," he pleaded.
She went on with no impatience but very coldly. "You came to tell me
your side. Will you tell me, please?"
For the first time she looked into his eyes and he drew in his breath
at the misery of hers.
"I built that cabin, Joan," he said, "for another woman."
"Your wife?" asked Joan.
"No."
"For the one I said must have been like a tall child? She wasn't your
wife? She was dead?"
Prosper shook his head. "No. Did you think that? She was a woman I
loved at that time very dearly and she was already married to another
man."
"You built that house for her? I don't understand."
"She had promised to leave her husband and to come away with me. I had
everything ready, those rooms, those clothes, those materials, and
when I went out to get her, I had a message saying that her courage
had failed her, that she wouldn't come."
"She was a better woman than me," said Joan bitterly.
Prosper laughed. "By God, she was not! She sent me down to hell. I
couldn't go back to the East again. I had laid very careful and
elaborate plans. I was trapped out there in that horrible winter
country...."