It was well to know so much , at least . After a time , she crept softly away , loosed her pony , and lashed him mercilessly with her whip through the streets of the town and out the long , dusty river trail . A man turned and looked after her as she tore past a brightly lighted store on Water Street . `` That was Tannis of the Flats , '' he said to a companion . `` She was in town last winter , going to school -- a beauty and a bit of the devil , like all those breed girls . What in thunder is she riding like that for ? '' One day , a fortnight later , Carey went over the river alone for a ramble up the northern trail , and an undisturbed dream of Elinor . When he came back Tannis was standing at the canoe landing , under a pine tree , in a rain of finely sifted sunlight . She was waiting for him and she said , with any preface : `` Mr. Carey , why do you never come to see me , now ? '' Carey flushed like any girl . Her tone and look made him feel very uncomfortable . He remembered , self-reproachfully , that he must have seemed very neglectful , and he stammered something about having been busy . `` Not very busy , '' said Tannis , with her terrible directness . `` It is not that . It is because you are going to Prince Albert to see a white woman ! '' Even in his embarrassment Carey noted that this was the first time he had ever heard Tannis use the expression , `` a white woman , '' or any other that would indicate her sense of a difference between herself and the dominant race . He understood , at the same moment , that this girl was not to be trifled with -- that she would have the truth out of him , first or last . But he felt indescribably foolish . `` I suppose so , '' he answered lamely . `` And what about me ? ''
asked XXXXX .
Albert Carey Elinor Street Tannis first fortnight girl pony something