By daylight the defects in construction were rather too
apparent. But at night the effect was imposing, almost grand.
But while the cowhands smoked in the patio, the noise of their
laughter and their heavy voices penetrated no louder than the dim
humming of bees to the ear of Red Jim Perris, sitting tete-a-tete with
Marianne in an inner room. And he did not envy the sprawling freedom
of those outside.
Pretty girls had come his way now and again during his wanderings
north and south and east and west through the mountain deserts. But
never before had he seen one in such a background. She had had the
good taste to make the inside of the house well-nigh as Spanish as its
exterior. There were cool, dim spaces in the big rooms; and here and
there were bright spots of color. Her very costume for the evening
showed the same discrimination. She wore drab riding clothes. But from
her own garden she had chosen a scentless blossom of a kind which Red
Perris had never seen before. The absent charm of perfume was turned
into a deeper coloring, a crimson intense as fire in the darkness of
her hair. That one touch of color, and no more, but it gave wonderful
warmth to her eyes and to her smile.
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