In the meanwhile, pull out
some of the straw and put it in the stove."
"Can you not do that?" asked Miss Barrington, feeling that she must
commence at once, if she was to keep this man at a befitting distance.
Winston laughed. "Oh, yes, but you will freeze if you stand still, and
these billets require splitting. Still, if you have special objections
to doing what I ask you, you can walk up and down rapidly."
The girl glanced at him a moment and then lowered her eyes. "Of course
I was wrong. Do you wish to hear that I am sorry?"
Winston, answering nothing, swung an ax round his head, and the girl
kneeling beside the stove noticed the sinewy suppleness of his frame
and the precision with which the heavy blade cleft the billets. The
ax, she knew, is by no means an easy tool to handle. At last the red
flame crackled, and, though she had not intended the question to be
malicious, there was a faint trace of irony in her voice as she asked,
"Is there any other thing you wish me to do?"
Winston flung two bundles of straw down beside the stove, and stood
looking at her gravely. "Yes," he said. "I want you to sit down and
let me wrap this sleigh robe about you."
The girl submitted, and did not shrink visibly from his touch, when he
drew the fur robe about her shoulders and packed the end of it round
her feet. Still, there was a faint warmth in her face, and she was
grateful for his unconcernedness.
"Fate or fortune has placed me in charge of you until to-morrow, and if
the position is distasteful to you, it is not my fault," he said.
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