timorously. "Tha's right, June. You do like the
doctor says, honey."

"I'd just as lief, Dad," she answered, and lay down obediently.

When she was out of her head, at the height of the fever, Mrs. Gillespie
could always get her to take the medicine and could soothe her fears and
alarms. Mollie was chief nurse. If she was not in the room, after June
had begun to mend, she was usually in the kitchen cooking broths or
custards for the sick girl.

June's starved heart had gone out to her in passionate loyalty and
affection. No woman had ever been good to her before, not since the death
of her aunt, at least. And Mollie's goodness had the quality of sympathy.
It held no room for criticism or the sense of superiority. She was a
sinner herself, and it was in her to be tender to others who had fallen
from grace.

To Mollie this child's innocent trust in her was exquisitely touching.
June was probably the only person in the world except small children who
believed in her in just this way. It was not possible that this faith
could continue after June became strong enough to move around and talk
with the women of Bear Cat. Though she had outraged public opinion all
her life, Mollie Gillespie found herself tugged at by recurring impulses
to align herself as far as possible with respectability.

For a week she fought against the new point of view. Grimly she scoffed
at what she chose to consider a weakness.

"This is a nice time o' day for you to try to turn proper, Mollie
Gillespie," she told herself plainly. "Just because a chit of a girl goes
daffy over you, is that any reason to change yore ways? You'd ought to
have a lick o' sense or two at yore age."

But her derision was a fraud. She was tired of being whispered about. The
independent isolation of which she had been proud had become of a sudden
a thing hateful to her.

She went to Larson as he was leaving the hotel dining-room on his next
visit to town.

"Want to talk with you. Come outside a minute."

The owner of the Wagon Rod followed.

"Jim," she said, turning on him abruptly, "you've always claimed you
wanted to marry me." Her blue eyes searched deep into his. "Do you mean
that? Or is it just talk?"

"You know I mean it, Mollie," he answered quietly.

"Well, I'm tired of being a scandal to Bear Cat. I've always said I'd
never get married again since my bad luck with Hank Gillespie. But I
don't know. If you really want to get married, Jim."

"I've alwa