"That is, it's my housekeeper--she's going to cook for the hay hands." "With a two months' start ?" grinned the other.
"Drive on acrosst now," said Sim Gage, in grim reply, which closed the other's mouth at once.
Mary Warren heard the crunch of wheels, heard the thump of her valise as Sim Gage caught it up and threw it into the back of the buckboard.
Then he spoke again.

She felt him standing close at hand.

Once more, trembling as in an ague, she placed a hand upon his arm.
"Now, when I tell you," he said gently, "why, you put your foot up on the hub of the wheel here, and grab the iron on the side, and climb in quick--these horses is sort of uneasy." "I can't see the wheel," said Mary Warren, groping.
She felt his hand steadying her--felt the rim of the wheel under her hand, felt him gently if clumsily try to help her up.

Her foot missed the hub of the wheel, the horses started, and she almost fell--would have done so had not he caught her in his arms.

It was almost the first time in his life, perhaps the only time, that he had felt the full weight of a woman in his arms.