"I've promised, yes," she said, feeling her face blanch, "and I keep my promises.... But I didn't say when. If you talk like that to me it might be a good many weeks--or--or months before I name the day."
"Columbine!" he cried, as she turned away. There was genuine distress in his voice. Columbine felt again an assurance that had troubled her. No matter how she was reacting to this new relation, it seemed a fearful truth that Jack was really falling in love with her. This time she did not soften.
"I'll call dad to make you stay home," he burst out again, his temper rising.
Columbine wheeled as on a pivot.
"If you do you've got less sense than I thought."
Passion claimed him then.
"I know why you're going. It's to see that club-footed cowboy Moore!... Don't let me catch you with him!"
Columbine turned her back upon Belllounds and swung away, every pulse in her throbbing and smarting. She hurried on into the road. She wanted to run, not to get out of sight or hearing, but to fly from something, she knew not what.