"You must have had several proposals, Gora dear. Your profession is almost
as good as a matrimonial bureau. And you look too fetching for words in
that uniform and cap."
"I've had just two proposals. One was from an old rancher who liked the way
I turned him over in bed and rubbed his back. The other was--well, a nice
fellow, and quite well off. But I'm not keen on marrying any one."
"Still, if it gave you that much more independence and leisure...travel...a
wider life...."
"I'd only consider marrying for two reasons: If I met a man who had the
power to make me quite mad about him, or one who could give me a great
position in the world and was not wholly obnoxious. Otherwise, I prefer to
trot alone. Why not? At least I escape monotony; I have what after all
is the most precious thing in life, complete personal freedom; and if I
succeed with my writing I can see the world and attain to position without
the aid of any man. If I don't, I don't, and that is the end of it. I'm a
bit of a fatalist, I think, although to be sure when I want a thing badly
enough I forget all about that and fight like the devil."
Alexina looked at the square face of her strange sister-in-law, so unlike
her brother; at the high cheek bones, the heavy low brows over the cold
light eyes, the powerful jaw, the wide firm but mobile mouth.
"Have you any Eussian blood?"' she asked. "'Way back?"
"Not that I know of.
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