“I should think it might be. But hardly fair—an old gent like you.”

“Clever girl.”

“No wonder Aunt Louise sent me in here on some fool errand about her glasses. I was typing one of her dinner lists, I suppose she thought it was time somebody interrupted this little snuggle.”

She pretended to be searching for the mythical glasses, ignoring Christine as though she were a child.

Chris lifted her head, extracted a handkerchief from Bay’s pocket, wiped her eyes with it, blew her nose, and stared at Dina Drake with a look surprisingly baleful for a girl ordinarily so sunny of aspect.

“Oh, go away, Dina,” she said. “I’m not trying to steal your gent. But I could if I put my mind to it.”

“Isn’t that darling, Bay! If she put her mind to it. I love the way you Alaskans talk.”

“Yes-s-s!” And now she was being very Oxford English, unconsciously, as Thor Storm was when he was very angry. “So quaint. So different from you Kansas City girls.”

“Not worthy of you, dear,” thus putting Chris directly in the wrong, “and I’m sorry,” Dina said. “I guess Aunt Louise was just worried, that’s all. She knows that Bay sometimes—I don’t mind because I’m used to it, I let him smooch around with other girls if he wants to, I don’t have to be jealous, but I think he ought to pick people his own size, who can protect themselves.”

Bay stood up, he shook himself a little, a kind of shrug into his coat collar. “This is getting kind of sordid.” He shook his head as Chris mutely offered him his somewhat used handkerchief. “Laundry … Listen, Chris. Mom tricked her into coming down here—good old dumb Mom—so she’d see that I’ve fallen for somebody—a little stumble of a fall, anyway—if I ever could fall for anyone. Which I doubt. Well, you gals clobber it out between you. But watch out, Chris, she won’t fight fair, no holds barred for that rassler.” He was gone.

The two women stood facing each other only for a moment. Dina Drake’s tone was friendly, almost casual, like that of one imparting self-evident information. “I think you ought to know that Bay Husack and I are going to be married. It was arranged long before you came.”

“I think you ought to tell him, then. He denies it.”

The resourceful Dina tried another tack. “It’s easy enough for you. You’ve had those rich people all your life in Alaska, and now here, cuddling you up and handing you around. I haven’t got anybody. Leave him alone, won’t you!”

“That’s what Bay meant when he said no holds barred. You don’t fight fair. Listen. I’m going to finish my time here and get my degree and then I’m going back. And I think it’s sickening to see two grown women snarling over a man like two huskies over a chunk of muktuk.”

“Huskies—mu—–”

“Never mind.” She turned at the door. “Don’t forget Aunt Louise’s glasses. She had them up on the top of her head when she came in.”