Perhaps the woman with the disfigured face was right.
Chapter XXV
On the Pipe-Line Trail
James Rutlidge spent the day following his experience with Sibyl Andres,
in camp. His companions very quickly felt his sullen, ugly mood, and left
him to his own thoughts.
The manner in which Sibyl received his advances had in no way changed the
man's mind as to the nature of her relation to Aaron King. To one of James
Rutlidge's type,--schooled in the intellectual moral and esthetic tenets
of his class,--it was impossible to think of the companionship of the
artist and the girl in any other light. If he had even considered the
possibility of a clean, pure comradeship existing between them--under all
the circumstances of their friendship as he had seen them in the studio,
on the trail at dusk, and in the artist's camp--he would have answered
himself that Aaron King was not such a fool as to fail to take advantage
of his opportunities. The humiliation of his pride, and his rage at being
so ignominiously checked by the girl whom he had so long endeavored to
win, served only to increase his desire for her. Sibyl's resolute spirit,
and vigorous beauty, when aroused by him, together with her unexpected
opposition to his advances, were as fuel to the flame of his passion.
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