"Oh, it's true! I saw great things in you, but—"
"Even when you saw me hoeing in the garden that first day?"
"Even then; but I wasn't prepared for a miracle. You were an enchanted princess, and it required only a magic word to break the spell."
"It is all your doings, Mr. Gray. Whatever I am I owe it all to you. And it's the same with the rest of the family. I—" Allie hesitated, looked up from her work, then shook her head smilingly.
"What?"
"I feel as if—well, as if you'd made me and I—belonged to you." It was dusk by this time; the girl's face was lit only by the indirect glow from the open door of the stove, therefore Gray could make nothing of her expression.
"How very flattering!" he laughed. "As a real matter of fact, I had almost nothing to do with it."
"All the same that's how I feel—as if I owed you everything and had to give something back. Women are queer, I guess. They love to give. And yet they're selfish—more selfish than men."
"I wouldn't say so."
"You don't know how bad hurt you were, Mr. Gray. I saved your life as much as Buddy did. You'd have died only for—only I wouldn't let you."