She in fact came to think
later of that night as the time when, most of all, it would have been
beautiful and right for her to have been able to give herself to a lover.
Although she did not know it, the kiss on the cheek from the bewhiskered
lips of Jim Priest had no doubt something to do with that thought when it
came.
And while the girl fought her battle with the strangeness of life and tried
to break through the imaginary walls that shut her off from the opportunity
to live, her father also rode through the night. With a shrewd eye he
watched the face of Steve Hunter. It had already begun to get a little fat,
but Tom realized suddenly that it was the face of a man of ability. There
was something about the jowls that made Tom, who had dealt much in live
stock, think of the face of a pig. "The man goes after what he wants. He's
greedy," the farmer thought. "Now he's up to something. To get what he
wants he'll give me a chance to get something I want. He's going to make
some kind of proposal to me in connection with the factory. He's hatched up
a scheme to shut Gordon Hart and John Clark out because he doesn't want too
many partners. All right, I'll go in with him. Either one of them would
have done the same thing had they had the chance."
Steve smoked a black cigar and talked. As he grew more sure of himself and
the affairs that absorbed him, he also became more smooth and persuasive in
the matter of words.
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