"You see, _I_ wanted _her_!" "Oh!" She gave a sharp, quick gasp of intelligence, and was silent.

After a full minute she rode quite close to his horse, and laid her small brown hand on the animal's mane.
"I am sorry," she said simply.
"Thank you," he answered.

"I'm sure I don't know why I told you.

I never told any one before." There was a long silence between them.

The man seemed to have forgotten her as he rode with his eyes upon his horse's neck, and his thoughts apparently far away.
At last the girl said softly, as if she were rendering return for the confidence given her, "I ran away from a man." The man lifted his eyes courteously, questioningly, and waited.
"He is big and dark and handsome.