"I tried to keep him from doing so. I stepped behind a sheltering bush while he passed, not that I particularly cared for his seeing me, but I felt for your safety. You had told me that your father must not see you with me, therefore I was in hiding for you, not for myself at all."
"Ye needn't," she replied warmly. "It's fer yourself I'm lookin' out. I can take care of me. The next time ye can, jest keep on in ther middle of ther road ef ye think yer hidin' fer me. Ye hain't, no, ye hain't."
Again Wade thoroughly misunderstood. "Let us keep peace," he said tenderly, "because you are my nearest neighbor now, and I'm a most neighborly fellow. I came over to-day because I believe neighbors ought to be friendly."
"Is that all?" she asked, a wild and troubled expression in her dark eyes. "No, not all, not quite all," he answered thoughtfully. "Had there not been an attraction here——"
"Whut's 'attraction'?" she interrupted shyly.
"Something to bring a fellow." She could not seem to understand.
"Your hoss could a-done that."
Wade laughed outright. The silvery notes touched deep down into the girl's very heart and soul, and she laughed a joyous laugh.
"I mean there is something on the other end to attract, to cause a fellow to have a desire to go. For instance, a magnetic power attracts other things, other bits of steel directly to it——"
"Whut's magnetic power?" she asked, interrupting.