uick pang to her.

"Shucks," he said, more to himself than to her; "if this had happened
three months ago I'd have been plumb amused, an' I'd have had a heap of
fun with somebody before it could be got over with. Somehow, it don't
seem to be so damned funny now.

"It's your fault, too," he went on, regarding her with a direct, level
gaze. "Not that you got me into this mix-up, you understand--you're
not to blame for a thing--but it's your fault that it don't seem funny
to me. You've made me see things different."

"I am so sorry," she said, standing pale and rigid before him.

"Sorry that I'm seein' things different?" he said. "No?" at her quick,
reproachful negative. "Well, then, sorry that this had to happen.
Well, I'm sorry, too. You see," he added, the color reaching his face,
"it struck me while I was ridin' over here that I wasn't goin' to be
exactly tickled over leavin'. It's been seemin' like home to me
for--well, for a longer time than I would have admitted three days ago,
when I had that talk with you. Or, rather," he corrected, with a
smile, "when you had that talk with me. There's a difference, ain't
there? Anyways, there's a lot of things that I wouldn't have admitted
three days ago. But I've got sense now--I've got a new viewpoint. An'
somehow, what I'm goin' to tell you don't seem to come hard. Because
it's the truth, I reckon. I've knowed it right along, but kept holdin'
it back.

"Dade had me sized up right. He said I was a false alarm; that I'd
been thinkin' of myself too much; that I'd forgot that there was other
people in the world. He was right; I'd forgot that other people had
feelings. But if he hadn't told me that them was your views I'd have
salivated him. But I couldn't blame him for repeatin' things you'd
said, because about that time I'd begun to do some thinkin' myself.

"In the first place, I found that I wasn't a whole lot proud of myself
for guzzlin' your grandad, but I'd made a mistake an' I wasn't goin' to
give you a chance to crow over me. I expect there's a lot of people do
that, but they're on the wrong trail--it don't bring no peace to a
man's mind. Then, I thought you was like all the rest of the women I'd
known, an' when I found out that you wasn't, I thought you had the
swelled head an' I figgered to take you down a peg. When I couldn't do
that it made me sore. It made me feel some cheap when you showed me
you trusted me, with me treatin' you like I di