"Poor thing! She had no home left—it was natural she should think of coming to her aunt."
"Yes, quite natural. And good for you also."
"I was not lonely before—"
"But if I had died?"
Mariquita had never thought of his dying; he was as strong as a tree, and she could not picture the range without him.
"I never thought of you dying. You are not old, father."
"Old, no! But suppose I had died, all the same—before Sarella came—what would you have done?"
"I never thought of it."
"No. That would have been out of place. But you could not have lived here, one girl all alone among all the men."
"No, of course."