For a time, with salient sympathy in his eyes, he watched the two
children playing. The whisking of their forms among the trees and over
the rocks was fine, gracious, and full of life-life without alarm. At
length he saw the girl falter slightly, then make a swift deceptive
movement to avoid the boy who pursued her. The movement did not delude
the boy. He had quickness of anticipation. An instant later the girl was
in his arms.
As Denzil gazed, it seemed she was in his arms too long, and a sudden
anxiety took hold of him. That anxiety was deepened when he saw the boy
kiss the girl on the cheek. This act seemed to discompose the girl, but
not enough to make drama out of an innocent, yet sensuous thing. The boy
had meant nothing more than he had shown, and Denzil traced the act to a
native sense of luxury in his nature. Knowing the boy's father and mother
as he did, it seemed strange that Carnac should have such demonstration
in his character. Of all the women he knew, Carnac's mother was the most
exact and careful, though now and again he thought of her as being
shrouded, or apart; while the boy's father, the great lumber-king,
cantankerous, passionate, perspicuous, seemed to have but one passion,
and that was his business.
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