It also increased her liking for him, since it appeared that Alton was capable of self-restraint.

There was, however, no mistaking what she had seen, and the girl remembered that one of the Winnipeg ladies she travelled with, who had visited one of the weird valleys across the American frontier, described to her the fascination of throwing stones into the basin of a geyser to see how many it would take before it erupted.
During her intercourse with rancher Alton, Alice Deringham had experienced the sensation.
"You have been working too hard lately, and worrying, too, I think," she said.
Alton laughed a little, and then glanced at the stove for a while in silence, as though communing with himself.

When he looked up again the girl fancied that he had decided something.

"Work hurts nobody.

It's the worry that leaves the mark," he said, with a smile.