He's just seemed to like me better; that's all. But
I'd do anything to save him from Moran."

"I should say that you might better wait until he asks you, before you
talk of giving him up to somebody." Mrs. Purnell spoke with the primness
that was to be expected, but her daughter made no reply. She had never
mentioned the night in Moran's office, and her mother knew nothing of
Wade's kiss. But to the girl it had meant more than any declaration in
words. She had kept her lips inviolate until that moment, and when his
kiss had fallen upon them it had fallen upon virgin soil, from out of
which had bloomed a white flower of passion. Before then she had looked
upon Wade as a warm friend, but since that night he had appeared to her
in another guise; that of a lover, who has come into his own. She had
met him then, a girl, and had left him a woman, and she felt that what
he had established as a fact in the one rare moment of his kiss,
belonged to him and her. It seemed so wholly theirs that she had not
been able to bring herself to discuss it with her mother. She had won it
fairly, and she treasured it. The thought of giving him up to Helen
Rexhill, of promising her never to see Wade again, was overwhelming, and
was to be considered only as a last resource, but there was no suffering
that she would not undertake for his sake.

Mrs. Purnell was as keenly alive as ever to the hope that the young
ranch owner might some day incline toward her little girl, but she was
sensitive also to the impression which the Rexhills had made upon her.
Her life with Mr. Purnell had not brought her many luxuries, and perhaps
she over-valued their importance. She thought Miss Rexhill a most
imposing young woman and she believed in the impeccability of the
well-to-do. Her heart was still warmed by the memory of the courtesy
with which she had been treated by the Senator's daughter, and was not
without the gratification of feeling that it had been a tribute to her
own worth. She had scolded Dorothy afterward for her frank speech to
Miss Rexhill at the hotel, and she felt that further slurs on her were
uncalled for.

"I'm sure that Miss Rexhill treated us as a lady should," she said
tartly. "She acted more like one than you did, if I do have to say it.
She was as kind and sweet as could be. She's got a tender heart. I could
see that when she up and gave me that blotter, just because I remarked
that it reminded me of your childhood."

"Oh, that old