figure of a young woman standing in front of it, who, however, half
fearfully, half laughingly withdrew before him. But his own manifest
disturbance apparently gave her courage.
"I jess was looking at that thing," she said bashfully, pointing to the
semaphore.
He was still more astonished, for, looking at her dark eyes and olive
complexion, he had expected her to speak Italian or broken English. And,
possibly because for a long time he had seen and known little of women,
he was quite struck with her good looks. He hesitated, stammered, and
then said:--
"Won't you come in?"
She drew back still farther and made a rapid gesture of negation with
her head, her hand, and even her whole lithe figure. Then she said, with
a decided American intonation:--
"No, sir."
"Why not?" said Jarman mechanically.
The girl sidled up against the cabin, keeping her eyes fixed on Jarman
with a certain youthful shrewdness.
"Oh, you know!" she said.
"I really do not. Tell me why."
She drew herself up against the wall a little proudly, though still
youthfully, with her hands behind her.
"I ain't that kind of girl," she said simply.
The blood rushed to Jarman's checks. Dissipated and abandoned as his
life had been, small respecter of women as he was, he was shocked and
shamed. Knowing too, as he did, how absorbed he was in other things, he
was indignant, because not guilty.
"Do as you please, then," he said shortly, and reentered the cabin. But
the next moment he saw his error in betraying an irritation that was
open to misconstruction. He came out again, scarcely looking at the
girl, who was lounging away.
"Do you want me to explain to you how the thing works?" he said
indifferently. "I can't show you unless a ship comes in."
The girl's eyes brightened softly as she turned to him.
"Do tell me," she said, with an anticipatory smile and flash of white
teeth. "Won't you?"
She certainly was very pretty and simple, in spite of her late speech.
Jarman briefly explained to her the movements of the semaphore arms and
their different significance. She listened with her capped head a little
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