"But I was helping him with it."
"He said you were just sitting and--and chinning."
"When we had finished working."
"Have you been here long?"
The young man looked her steadily in the face, and said gravely: "Ever since Blizzard came."
Barbara lifted her chin a little. "I am quite able to take care of myself," she said.
He shook his head sadly.
"Do you make it your business"--she had succeeded in making herself angry--"to keep an eye on all young women whom you fancy unable to take care of themselves?"
"I only wish to God I could," he said earnestly. "But of course it's impossible. So I just do the best I can."
"And why have you chosen me? Surely others are even more helpless than I am." She managed to convey a good deal of scorn. "Why," she continued, "must I be the particular creature singled out for your chivalrous notice?"