But he was waiting. And in reality her reply came without any hesitation. She shook her head.
"You've made a mistake," she said decidedly but gently. "I have no intention of marrying anybody." Then, taking her courage in both hands, she permitted something of her dislike and contempt to creep into her manner. "It seems to me you take a great deal too much for granted. You come here when you think you will, wholly uninvited, and, from the first, you hint broadly that you regard me as--as the person you intend to marry. That is presumption, to put it mildly, and I have no use for people who--presume."
She moved as though to return to the house. But Ike, all his confidence suddenly merged into a volcanic heat, reached out a hand to detain her. His hand came into rough contact with the soft flesh of her shoulder, and, shaking it off, she faced him with flaming eyes.
"Don't dare to do that again," she cried, with bosom heaving. "Go, leave this farm instantly. Remember you are trespassing here!"
Her anger had outweighed all her alarm, even, perhaps, all discretion. For the man was in no mood to accept his dismissal easily.
"So that's it, is it?" he cried with a sudden hoarseness. "Oho, my lady! We're putting on airs," he sneered. "Not good enough, eh? Presuming, am I? An' who in blazes are you that you can't be touched? Seems to me a decent honest citizen's jest as good fer you as fer any other gal, an' my dollars are clean. What in thunder's amiss?" Then his heat lessened, and his manner became more ingratiating. "See here, Golden," he went on persuasively, "you don't mean that, sure! Wot's the matter with me? I ain't weak-kneed, nor nuthin'. I ain't scared o' no man. I'd scrap the devil ef you ast me. An' say, just think wot we ken do with the dollars. You'd make a real upstander in a swell house, with folks waitin' around on you, an' di'monds an' things. Say, I'm jest bustin' to make good like that. You can't jest think how much gold ther' is in my patch--an' you brought it along with you. You give it to me--your luck."
There was something almost pathetic in his pleading, and for a brief moment a shade of sympathy softened the girl.
"Please don't persist, Ike," she said almost gently. "Still, I can never marry you. It's--it's--absurd," she added, with a touch of impatience she could not wholly keep back.
But that touch of impatience suddenly set fire again to the man's underlying intolerance of being thwarted.