His good-humor and a certain chivalrous instinct he could not repress got the better of him.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"What I thay, and what you DO, Teretha, needn't make us quarrel.

I've no claim on you--I know it.

Only--" a vivid sense of the ridiculous, powerful in men of his stamp, completed her victory--"only don't thay anything about my coming down here to cut you out from the--the--THE SHERIFF." He gave utterance to a short but unaffected laugh, made a slight grimace, and turned to go.
Teresa did not join in his mirth.