of her kisses? No! But his reply was hot with shame, with
uncertainty. The thing that seemed wrong was outside of himself. A
blunder was no crime. To be attracted by a pretty girl in the
woods--to yield to an impulse was no disgrace, nor wrong. He had been
foolish over a girl before, though not to such a rash extent. Ellen
Jorth had stuck in his consciousness, and with her a sense of regret.

Then swiftly rang his father's bitter words, the revealing: "But the
looks of her an' what she is--they don't gibe!" In the import of these
words hid the meaning of the wrong that troubled him. Broodingly he
pondered over them.

"The looks of her. Yes, she was pretty. But it didn't dawn on me at
first. I--I was sort of excited. I liked to look at her, but didn't
think." And now consciously her face was called up, infinitely sweet
and more impelling for the deliberate memory. Flash of brown skin,
smooth and clear; level gaze of dark, wide eyes, steady, bold,
unseeing; red curved lips, sad and sweet; her strong, clean, fine face
rose before Jean, eager and wistful one moment, softened by dreamy
musing thought, and the next stormily passionate, full of hate, full of
longing, but the more mysterious and beautiful.

"She looks like that, but she's bad," concluded Jean, with bitter
finality. "I might have fallen in love with Ellen Jorth if--if she'd
been different."

But the conviction forced upon Jean did not dispel the haunting memory
of her face nor did it wholly silence the deep and stubborn voice of
his consciousness. Later that afternoon he sought a moment with his
sister.

"Ann, did you ever meet Ellen Jorth?" he asked.

"Yes, but not lately," replied Ann.

"Well, I met her as I was ridin' along yesterday. She was herdin'
sheep," went on Jean, rapidly. "I asked her to show me the way to the
Rim. An' she walked with me a mile or so. I can't say the meetin' was
not interestin', at least to me.... Will you tell me what you know
about her?"

"Sure, Jean," replied his sister, with her dark eyes fixed wonderingly
and kindly on his troubled face. "I've heard a great deal, but in this
Tonto Basin I don't believe all I hear. What I know I'll tell you. I
first met Ellen Jorth two years ago. We didn't know each other's names
then. She was the prettiest girl I ever saw. I liked her. She liked
me. She seemed unhappy. The next time we met was at a round-up.
There were other girls with me and they snubbed her.