She had not forgotten his previous restraint and gravity, but now his face seemed to have relaxed with some humorous satisfaction.

She felt herself coloring slightly, but whether with shame or relief she could not tell.
"I shall be so much obliged to you," she replied hesitatingly, "and so will my father, I know." "I reckon," said the man with the same look of amused conjecture; then, with a quick, assuring nod, he turned away, and dived into the wheat again.
"You're all right now, Miss Mallory," said Bent, complacently.

"Dawson will fix it.

He's got a good horse, and he's a good driver, too." He paused, and then added pleasantly, "I suppose they're all well up at the house ?" It was so evident that his remark carried no personal meaning to herself that she was obliged to answer carelessly, "Oh, yes." "I suppose you see a good deal of Miss Randolph--Miss Adele, I think you call her ?" he remarked tentatively, and with a certain boyish enthusiasm, which she had never conceived possible to his nature.
"Yes," she replied a little dryly, "she is the only young lady there." She stopped, remembering Adele's naive description of the man before her, and said abruptly, "You know her, then ?" "A little," replied the young man, modestly.

"I see her pretty often when I am passing the upper end of the ranch.