A PEACE OFFERING If there was one trait in Betty's character that bothered Calumet more than another, it was her frankness.

More than once during the days that followed Neal Taggart's visit Calumet was made to feel the absence of guile in her treatment of him.

The glances she gave him were as straightforward and direct as her words, and it became plain to him that with her there were no mental reservations.

Her attitude toward him had not changed; she still dealt with him as the school teacher deals with the unruly scholar--with a personal aloofness that promised an ever-widening gulf if he persisted in defying her authority.
Calumet got this impression and it grew on him; it was disconcerting, irritating, and he tried hard to shake it off, to no avail.
He had considered carefully the impulse which had moved him to entice Taggart to the Lazy Y, and was convinced that it had been aroused through a desire to take some step to avenge his father.

He told himself that if in the action there had been any desire to champion Betty he had not been conscious of it.