“Daddy could not be expected to discharge him, could he, when Kid did it to save our range? You see, it was just because he was so very loyal. You must not think from these things that he––It is true he is suspicious of strangers, but he always has been 25 very kind and gentle to me. I am very fond of him.”
“You are?” exclaimed Ashton, stirred from his uneasy depression. “I should hardly have thought him the kind to interest a girl like you.”
“Really?” she bantered. “Why not? I have lived on the range ever since I was fourteen.”
He stared at her incredulously. “Since you were fourteen?”
“For nine years,” she added, smiling at his astonishment.
“But––it can’t be,” he protested, his eyes on her stylish costume. “At least, not all the time.”
She nodded at him encouragingly. “So you can see––a little. Nearly all my winters have been spent in Denver, except one in Europe.”
“Europe?” he repeated.
“We didn’t cross in a cattle boat,” she flashed back at him, dimpling mischievously. “Nor did I go as the Queen of the Rancho, or of the Roundup, or even of the Wild and Woolly Outlaw Band.”
He flushed with mortification. “I am only too well aware, Miss Knowles, how you must regard me.”