He laughed in quiet ecstasy at this newest and most adorable of the moods.
"Honest confession is good for the soul: I did," he boasted. "Now beat that for frankness, if you can."
"I can't," she admitted, laughing back at him. "But now you've accomplished your purpose, I hope you are not going to give up. That would be a little hard on Colonel-daddy."
"Oh, no; I'm not going to give up—until I have to."
"Does that mean more than it says?"
"Yes, I'm afraid it does."
She was silent for the length of time that it took the flaming crimson in the western sky to fade to salmon.
"I know I haven't earned the right to ask you any of the whys," she said at the end of the little pause.
"Women like you—only there are not any more of them, I think—don't have to earn things. The last time you were in the office you said enough to let me know that you and your father and Williams—all of you, in fact—suspect that I am out here under a cloud of some sort. It is true."
"And that is why you say you won't give up until you have to?"