"So," she said when at last he released her, not certain in her heart that she had held out quite long enough, "that is the way you treat little girls who tease, is it? All little girls who tease? The 'Roosian' princess, for instance?" "The _what_?" he demanded, having for the moment forgotten Dart's wild tale. "Helga," she told him quite as seriously as she could, rearranging her disturbed hair and meanwhile looking up at him with eyes that were beginning to defy her and smile. As he remembered, as he thought of the things Dart had told her to "boost his game" he became for one of the rare times in his life just a trifle embarrassed. She must think him a fool for letting that little cur yap all kind of nonsense into her ears, or the ears of any one who would listen. He flushed under her teasing eyes. "I'm going to wring Willie Dart's little neck the first thing when I get home," he said. "Look here, Wanda--" "Oho!" Her brows lifted and she looked at him speculatively. "So there really is a Helga, is there?" But he was laughing again, again threatening to kiss her adorable red mouth if she did not behave and tell him all about herself. "If you had really wanted to know couldn't you have ridden over sooner?" she asked. Then he told her why he had stayed away, how he had wanted to see her every day, how he had thought that she would understand. "Your father forbade me the ranch," he reminded her. "At first I thought that it would be impossible for me to bring myself to set foot upon property belonging to him. I thought of sending word to you by Garth, by Dart even, asking you to meet me somewhere, anywhere that I would not be trespassing. And, dear, even before I would ask you to meet me, if you still cared!" with mock seriousness, "I wanted time to fight things out with myself, a few days in which to see if there was not some way out better than this one. I hoped, even, that your father would change his mind, that he would be fair with me as it is his way to be. And then at last, when I could not wait any longer, I came. And now, my Wanda Witch, I am going to stay until you come and put both arms around my neck and admit that you love me so hard that you've been perfectly miserable since you saw me!" "And Helga?" she insisted lightly but with just a hint of curiosity. "If you go on that way much more," he assured her, "I'll say, 'Damn Helga!' Tell me about yourself." There was much to tell and it came at last as they sat together under the cedar, oblivious of the world about them, careless of what might lie in the future for them. There was the story of her rides, the murder of a bear cub, the meeting with Willie Dart, and-- "And, first of all," she cried triumphantly, "the discovery of a wonderful secret." She refused to tell him what it was until he obeyed her bidding. She sent him scouting to see that no human eye could spy upon them, and then she sent him climbing the cedar.