"The convention of honesty, for instance. Thanks, Miss Dwight."
"I didn't want to believe it, but——"
The penitence in her vivid face pleaded for her. He could not refuse the outstretched hand of this slender lance-straight girl whose sweet vitality was at once so delicate and so gallant. Reluctantly his palm met hers.
"You're quite sure now that I didn't do it?"
"Quite sure."
"Even though I've been brought up badly?"
"Oh, I didn't say badly—really. You know I didn't."
"And though I'm wild and lawless?"
"Aren't you?" she flashed back with a smile that took from the words any sting they might otherwise have had.
Mirth overflowed in his eyes, from which now many little creases radiated. "You're a good one, neighbor. But, since you will have it, I am. I reckon my standards even of honesty wouldn't square with yours. I live in a rough mining camp where questions have two sides. It's up to me to play the game the way the other fellow plays it. But we'll not go into that now."