"Wyoming gave me two great gifts, Jack; it gave me back my health and it gave me my love for you."
Frank said this so quietly and so simply that Jack felt she must have been mistaken. Surely she had not understood him! He ought to have given her some warning, allowed her a few moments of preparation. She could never have imagined that a man could declare his love in such a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Jack hardly knew what to do or say. Surreptitiously she made a movement of her bridle so that her horse quickened his pace.
But Frank's hand reached out and caught hold of hers firmly. "You must not run away from me, Jack," he protested. "For you would not like to have me ride after you shouting out my love for you for all the neighborhood to hear. And if you won't listen to me quietly, that is exactly what I will do. Why is it you have been unwilling to listen, Jack? If it is only that you don't love me in return, I understand that. But a girl like you has got to get used to refusing men."
"Oh, Frank," Jack protested, "please don't say such foolish things."
Nevertheless, she slowed down her horse, seeing that Frank was determined that she should listen this time.
"I have loved you always, Jack, from the first day of meeting you. I have never cared for any one else. I think it only fair to let you know that I mean to make you love me in return some day."
Frank's tone was so quiet and so positive that Jack smiled. She was not accustomed to being spoken to in this fashion, but she was not at all sure she disliked it.
"Why don't you answer me?" Frank asked a few moments afterwards. "By and by, when you have gone back to the ranch, I suppose you know I shall follow you. Will you give me my answer then?"
Just for a moment Jack's face turned the warm, radiant color Jean had seen there once before. Bending slightly from her horse she took Frank's hand that was now hanging at his side and an instant held it close.
"Don't think, Frank, I don't appreciate what you have told me, or that I am so cold and unfeeling, as you seem to think I am. It is only that I don't know, that there is something I may be mistaken about, that I can't trust to any one else's judgment except my own. But, Frank dear, if you think I am worth coming across the water and the land to far off Wyoming to see, why then, then I shall know what to say."