"The man who caught her is a brute. He would have wanted to tighten my girths for me, and that's why I dropped behind. I felt it would be him, so I slid out of sight behind a hedge, and when I saw it was him coming back with her, I didn't want his smile, so I just ran into the woods and started to walk home."
"Did he see you?"
"No. He may be there still, for all I know."
"He must have been having a roaring time leading the mare about all day."
"I hope it'll teach him not to pester a girl again."
I sighed. "Some of us are brutes, aren't we?"
"Yes."
A pause. Then:
"But some men have been very nice to me."
"The devil they have!" said I.