But Thurston was not what one might call enthusiastic, and Hank laughed his deep, inner laugh when he was well away from the house.
Thurston, on the contrary, glowered at the world for two hours after.
Park was a fine fellow, and Thurston liked him about as well as any man he knew in the West, but--And thus it went.

On each and every visit to the Stevens ranch--and they were many--Hank, learning by direct inquiry that the story still suffered for lack of a hero, suggested some fellow whom he had at one time and another caught "shining" around Mona.

And with each suggestion Thurston would draw down his eyebrows till he came near getting a permanent frown.
A love story without a hero, while it would no doubt be original and all that, would hardly appeal to an editor.

Phil tried heroes wholly imaginary, but he had a trick of making his characters seem very real to himself and sometimes to other people as well.

So that, after a few passages of more or less ardent love-making, he would in a sense grow jealous and spoil the story by annihilating the hero thereof.
Heaven only knows how long the thing would have gone on if he hadn't, one temptingly beautiful evening, reverted to the day of the hold-up and apologized for not obeying her command.