But rations were short and the Blacks bad....

However, that's neither here nor there, now.

Gold mine or not, I'm positive that I shall be a rich man before many years have passed--all the richer for a true mate to stand by me.' 'Yes, of course,' she said hastily--'I wasn't thinking of that--whether you were rich or not, I mean.' 'I know you weren't.

All the same, I suppose your grand relations would consider me a presumptuous boor for daring to lift my eyes to you.

And yet, if I could make you love me, it wouldn't count for a blade of grass that your father was born in a castle and mine in a crofter's cabin....