"We have been engaged for a year. Certainly, I shall marry him. Why not? But he won't have me, now!"
"Does Warden love you, Miss Wharton?"
"That doesn't concern you!" she snapped.
"No—not in the least. But if Warden loves you, and I went to him and explained that your being here was accidental——"
"Bah!" she sneered; "you're a fool, Lawler! Do you expect Gary Warden would swallow that! You don't know him!"
"Well," said Lawler, gently; "he need not know. If you are afraid to face public opinion, to show by your actions that you have nothing to be ashamed of, I'll take you to the Circle L, just as soon as we can get through. We'll time ourselves to get there at night. No one need know, and you can tell Warden that you were caught in the storm and drifted to the Circle L, where you stayed with my mother. I can come back here and no one will ever know the difference."
"I don't want to see your mother!" she sneered. "I'd be afraid she would be something like you! Ugh! I hate you!"
"There is only one other way," smiled Lawler. "I know Keller, the owner of the Willets Hotel, very intimately. I can take you there, at night—after the storm breaks. No one need know. You can say you were at the hotel all the time. And Keller will support your word."
"I presume I shall have to go to Willets—since I have to lie!" she said, wrathfully.
"Yes," said Lawler incisively; "it takes courage to be truthful, Miss Wharton. But if a person always tells the truth——"