He mutters, his eyes blinking a little at the radiance that is before him: "Now, Ermie, ye can make everything quite easy for yerself!"
"Indeed—how?" She tries very hard to conceal it, but some scorn will get into her voice.
"By givin' up the stock quiet!"
"Ah! then you will let me go?"
"Oh, no! The sheriff wouldn't do that; but when he takes ye back to Utah, I'll go bail for ye, an' I'll take ye down to my home in Kammas Prairie, where ye'll be nice an' comfortable, an' I'll look after ye."
"You are always very good to me," says the girl with a sneer, though he doesn't detect it, and replies: "Yes, I'll be better to ye than ye know!"
And she, trying to act her part, to prevent any suspicion in his mind, thanks him with so much apparent heartiness that the old satyr loses his head, and chuckles: "Now, that's the right kind o' talk. Now yer lookin' beautiful as one o' the angels of Zion. I've been havin' my eye on ye, an' I'm goin' to exalt ye, an' take ye into my family."
"Take me into your family—as a daughter?"
"No, as a wife, for I love ye!"
And looking to her like an ogre, he would advance to her, whispering: "By this kiss of peace, I take ye into my family!"