She came closer, and touched his sleeve.
"But the things waiting for those who venture out there"—he turned a look full of foreboding on the blue horizon—"they aren't all, or even most of them, good things."
"No, no. I've heard that; but I'll make the best of them."
He shook his head.
"You haven't a notion what a hard world it is for women—and for men, my dear. I want to save my little girl from—"
"What does it matter if I do have a hard time? I expect a hard time. Nobody could invent a time so hard that I couldn't bear it, and come out of it! Oh, you'll see—"
"Perhaps, when you are older—"
"Older!" Her face flashed quick alarm. "I'm dreadfully old already. I ought to have begun when I was twelve. There's little enough time to learn all I have to. If I don't run away quick—father, I feel it in my bones—something will happen; I shall never go, I shall stick here like the rest, till—till the end."
He glanced sideways at her. She met his eyes with a look he had never seen in them before.
"Val—" he cleared his throat as they neared the Fort.