Why Tom, a big,
brutal lumberman, desired to marry Mamie, no longer young, never
pretty, penniless, and admittedly fond of Dennis, must remain a
mystery. Why Mamie married Tom is a question easily answered. Tom was
"boss" of a logging-camp, and none had ever denied his Caesarean
attributes. He had the qualities and vices conspicuously absent in
Dennis. He was Barker, of Barker's Inlet. The mere mention of his name
in certain saloons was enough to put the fear of God into men even
bigger than himself. A sort of malefic magnetism exuded from every
pore of his skin. When he held up his finger Mamie crawled to him. She
believed, probably, that she was escaping from a drunken father, and
she knew that Tom could and would supply many things for which she had
yearned--a parlour, for instance, possibly a piano, and a silk dress.
She would have taken Dennis without these amenities, but Dennis had
fled to the back of Nowhere without even saying good-bye.
Months after the marriage Dennis came back. Ajax described the wedding
and the subsequent flitting to Barker's Inlet. Dennis listened,
stroking his too thin, straggling moustache.
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