The light had almost gone, but his face still showed drawn and white and Hetty bent down nearer him. "Put your hand in mine, Larry," she said softly. "I have something to tell you." The man obeyed her, wondering, while a thrill ran through him as the mittened fingers closed upon his own. "Hetty," he said, "I have only brought trouble on everyone. I'm not fit to speak to you." "No," said the girl, with a throb in her voice. "You have only done what very few other men would have dared to do, and many a better girl than I am would be proud to be fond of you. Now listen, Larry. For years you were ever so good to me, and I was too mean and shallow and selfish even to understand what you were giving me. I fancied I had a right to everything you could do. But come nearer, Larry." She drew him closer to her, until his garments pressed the horse's flank and the blanket skirt she wore, and leaned down still further with her hand upon his shoulder. "I found out, dear, and now I want you to forgive me and always love me." The grasp on her hand became compelling, and she moved her foot from the stirrup as the man's arm reached upwards towards her waist. Had she wished she could not have helped herself; as she slipped from the saddle the arm closed round her and it was several seconds before she and Grant stood a pace apart, with tingling blood, looking at one another. There was no sign of Flora Schuyler, they were alone, enfolded in the silence of the bluff. "It is wonderful," he said. "I can't even talk, Hetty. I want to realize it." Hetty laughed but there was a note in her voice that set the man's heart beating furiously. "Yes, it is wonderful it should come to me," she said. "No, you needn't look round, Larry. There is nothing and nobody that counts now except you and me. I am just beginning to understand your patience, and how hard I must have been to you." "I waited a long time," he said. "It was worth while. Even the troubles I felt crushing me seem very little now. If they were only over, and there was nothing to come between you and me!" "Larry," the girl said very softly, "are you sure they need do that? It has been so horrible lately, and I can't even sleep at night for thinking of the risks that you are taking." Grant closed one hand, but it was too dark now for Hetty to see his face, and she was glad of it. "You mean--" he said hoarsely, and stopped. "Just this," her voice almost a whisper. "I am frightened of it all, and when you want me I will come to you. No, wait just a little. I could never marry the man who was fighting against my father and the people I belong to, while, now I know what you are, I could never ask him to go back on what he felt was right; but, Larry, the men you did so much for have turned against you, and the things they are doing are not right, and would never please you. Can't we go away and leave the trouble behind us? Nobody seems to want us now."