"I allow that you are an angel!" he enthusiastically declared.
"You have a low conception of angels. I can't imagine one meeting a man in this surreptitious fashion. Really, Buck, when you come to think of it, it is almost as bad as—as—what you did at Connelly's, you know!"
"Not on your life, it isn't! It's the thing I knew you would do—and there isn't any truer or better girl whatever on this earth!"
"I am glad you think so, Buck."
The Westerner was trembling as much now with delight and pleasure as he had before been trembling with apprehension. The fear that Winnie would cast him off when she knew the truth about the Crested Foam affair, that had so distressed him, had given place to a deep satisfaction.
"It would be dreadful if father should discover us here. I am really getting scared!" she continued.
"I reckon that there isn't any other place whatever where we can go?" he anxiously asked.
"No. But we can stand and talk here a little while. Then I shall have to hurry back into the house before my absence is noticed. One of the servants I can trust to help me, but, I am afraid, not the others."
"And Elsie and Inza?"
"Yes, of course, all they can. They have just heard about the trouble I have been having. They thought I was sick. I don't know what they can do."