The charge of melodrama is not one that should disturb a writer of fiction.

The question is, are the characters melodramatic.
Will anyone suggest to me the marriage of a girl of seventeen with a man over sixty is melodramatic.

It may be, but I think it tragical, and so it was in this case.

As for Orlando Guise, I describe the man as I knew him, and he is still alive.

Some comments upon the story suggested that it was impossible for a man to spend the night on the prairie with a woman whom he loved without causing her to forget her marriage vows.