“Nell, just now—when you're overcome—rash with feelin's—don't say to me—a word—a—”
He broke down huskily.
“My first friend—my—Oh Dale, I KNOW you love me! she whispered. And she hid her face on his breast, there to feel a tremendous tumult.
“Oh, don't you?” she cried, in low, smothered voice, as his silence drove her farther on this mad, yet glorious purpose.
“If you need to be told—yes—I reckon I do love you, Nell Rayner,” he replied.
It seemed to Helen that he spoke from far off. She lifted her face, her heart on her lips.
“If you kill Beasley I'll never marry you,” she said.
“Who's expectin' you to?” he asked, with low, hoarse laugh. “Do you think you have to marry me to square accounts? This's the only time you ever hurt me, Nell Rayner.... I'm 'shamed you could think I'd expect you—out of gratitude—”
“Oh—you—you are as dense as the forest where you live,” she cried. And then she shut her eyes again, the better to remember that transfiguration of his face, the better to betray herself.
“Man—I love you!” Full and deep, yet tremulous, the words burst from her heart that had been burdened with them for many a day.