"We're not anything---" Then Nell hesitated and finally ceased speaking.

She saw that denials or explanations were futile; the simple woman had seen the kiss, and formed her own conclusions.

During the few days Nell had spent at Fort Pitt, she had come to understand that the dwellers on the frontier took everything as a matter of course.

She had seen them manifest a certain pleasure; but neither surprise, concern, nor any of the quick impulses so common among other people.

And this was another lesson Nell took to heart.