Even without the mask she had once worn she would easily have been recognized as Oldring's Rider.

No man who had ever seen her would forget her, regardless of his ignorance as to her sex.

Then more poignant than all other argument was the fact that he did not want to take her away from Surprise Valley.

He resisted all thought of that.

He had brought her to the most beautiful and wildest place of the uplands; he had saved her, nursed her back to strength, watched her bloom as one of the valley lilies; he knew her life there to be pure and sweet--she belonged to him, and he loved her.