“I’m glad you understand me, and you will let me know if I can help you, won’t you?”
“Yes,” she answered, simply.
“Good-night,” he said, extending his hand.
She placed her palm to his quite frankly, but the touch of it made further speech at the moment impossible.
They went in with such tell-tale faces that even Redfield wondered what had passed between them.
Excusing himself almost at once, Cavanagh left the room, and when he looked in, a few moments later, he was clothed in the ranger’s dusty green uniform, booted and spurred for his long, hard ride. Mrs. Redfield followed him into the hall and out on the door-stone to say: “Ross, you must be careful. This girl is very alluring in herself, but her mother, you know, is impossible.”
“You’re needlessly alarmed, as usual,” he smilingly replied. “She interests me—that’s patent; but beyond that, why—nonsense! Good-night.”
Nevertheless, despite his protestations, he went away up the trail with his mind so filled with Lee Virginia’s appealing face and form that he would certainly have ridden over a precipice had it not been for his experienced pony, who had fortunately but one aim, and that was to cross the range safely and to reach the home pasture at the earliest moment.
Now that he was looking back upon three hours more of Lee’s society, Cavanagh was ready to admit that he had left his range and ridden hard and far with that one purpose in mind. He had been hungry for the sight of her, and now that he had touched her hand and looked upon her again he was a little surprised and deeply disturbed to find himself hungrier than before.