You know I'm rather inclined to that sort of thing.

But as long as my folly don't affect others, I can stand it." "But it may affect others--and THEY may not think of it as folly--" She stopped short, confused by his brightening color and eyes.

"I mean--Oh, Mr.Kearney, I want you to be frank with me.

I know nothing of business, but I know there has been trouble about the mine at Devil's Ford.

Tell me honestly, has my father anything to do with it?
If I thought that through any imprudence of his, you had suffered--if I believed that you could trace any misfortune of yours to him--to US--I should never forgive myself"-- she stopped and flashed a single look at him--"I should never forgive YOU for abandoning us." The look of pain which had at first shown itself in his face, which never concealed anything, passed, and a quick smile followed her feminine anticlimax.
"Miss Carr," he said, with boyish eagerness, "if any man suggested to me that your father wasn't the brightest and best of his kind--too wise and clever for the fools about him to understand--I'd--I'd shoot him." Confused by his ready and gracious disclaimer of what she had NOT intended to say, there was nothing left for her but to rush upon what she really intended to say, with what she felt was shameful precipitation.
"One word more, Mr.Kearney," she began, looking down, but feeling the color come to her face as she spoke.