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Gone back on your grub, eh?" It was his clerk, Samuel Sprink, whose sharp little eyes had not failed to note the gloomy glances of his employer. "Pretty gay girl, our Irma has come to be," continued the cheerful Samuel, who prided himself on his fine selection of colloquial English. "She's a beaut now, ain't she? A regular bird!" Rosenblatt started.
Indeed, Samuel Sprink, young though he was and unlearned in the ways of the world, was the only man in the city that Rosenblatt feared. If by any means Samuel could obtain a hold over this young lady, he would soon bring her to the dust. Once in Samuel's power, she would soon sink to the level of the ordinary Galician wife.
The old coarse and familiar horseplay which she had permitted without thought at their hands, was now distasteful to her. Indeed, with most of the men it ceased to be any longer possible. There were a few, however, and Samuel Sprink among them, who were either too dull-witted to recognise the change that had come to the young girl, or were unwilling to acknowledge it.
Rosenblatt, who was still in charge of the Winnipeg end of the Company's business. "You must come at once," wrote Mr. Sprink. "I have a great business on hand. I have discovered that no application has been made for the coal mine claimed by young Kalmar, and this means that the mine is still open. Had I the full description of the property, I should have jumped the claim at once, you bet.
Don't you be afraid of that Sprink; I'll knock his head off if he harms you." "Not yet, Kalman," said Irma, smiling at him. "Wait a year or two before you talk like that." "A year or two! I shall be a man then." "Oh, indeed!" mocked his sister, "a man of fifteen years." "You are only fifteen yourself," said Kalman. "And a half," she interrupted.
"Well, that's nothing," said Kalman; "they all want to do that." "Not for months, Kalman," protested Irma, "and never again, and especially that little Sprink. Never! Never!" As Kalman looked at her erect little figure and her flushed face, it dawned on him that a change had come to his little sister. He paused in his eating. "Irma," he said, "what have you done to yourself?
But that was before Irma had been brought to the little mission, and before she had learned through Margaret Ketzel and through Margaret's father and mother something of Canadian life, of Canadian people, of Canadian manners and dress. As her knowledge in this direction extended, her admiration and reverence for Samuel Sprink faded.
"Give him another," shouted a voice. "No, Kalman," said his sister in a low voice, "no more beer." But the boy only laughed at her as he filled his mug again. "I am too full to sing just now," he cried; "let us dance," and, seizing Irma, he carried her off under the nose of the disappointed Sprink, joining with the rest in one of the many fascinating dances of the Hungarian people.
Play up a czardas, and at once!" The musicians hastened to obey, and before the cheers had died, the strains of the czardas filled the room. With the quick reaction from the tragic to the gay, the company swung into this joyous and exciting dance. Samuel Sprink, seizing Irma, whirled her off into the crowd struggling and protesting, but all in vain.
"No, not to-night," he said; "I am not going to stop my feast for him." "No, indeed," cried Irma. "Come quick and finish your feast. Oh, what eating we have had, and then what dancing! And they all want to dance with me," she continued, "Jacob and Henry and Nicholas, and they are all nice except that horrid little Sprink." "Did you not dance with him?"
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