Had this refuge been offered the girl during her first flight in the
wilderness, with what joy and thankfulness she would have accepted! Now it
suddenly seemed a great impossibility for her to stay. She must go on. She
had a pleasant ride before her, and delightful companionship; and she was
going to school. The world was wide, and she had entered it. She had no
mind to pause thus on the threshold, and never see further than Montana.
Moreover, the closing words of the woman did not please her.
"I cannot stay," she said decidedly. "I'm going to school. And I do not
want a man. I have just run away from a man, a dreadful one. I am going to
school in the East. I have some relations there, and perhaps I can find
them."
"You don't say so!" said the woman, looking disappointed. She had taken a
great fancy to the sweet young face. "Well, dearie, why not stay here a
little while, and write to your folks, and then go on with some one who is
going your way? I don't like to see you go off with that man. It ain't the
proper thing. He knows it himself. I'm afraid he's deceivin' you. I can
see by his clo'es he's one of the fine young fellows that does as they
please. He won't think any good of you if you keep travellin' 'lone with
him. It's all well 'nough when you get lost, an' he was nice to help you
out and save you from snakes; but he knows he ain't no business travellin'
'lone with you, you pretty little creature!"
"You must not talk so!" said the girl, rising and flashing her eyes again.
"He's a good man. He's what my brother called 'a white man all through.'
Besides, he's got a lady, a beautiful lady, in the East. She rides in some
kind of a grand carriage that goes of itself, and he thinks a great deal
of her."
The woman looked as if she were but half convinced.
"It may seem all right to you, dearie," she said sadly; "but I'm old, and
I've seen things happen. You'd find his fine lady wouldn't go jantin'
round the world 'lone with him unless she's married. I've lived East, and
I know; and what's more, he knows it too. He may mean all right, but you
never can trust folks."
The woman went away to prepare breakfast then, and left the girl feeling
as if the whole world was against her, trying to hold her. She was glad
when the man suggested that they hurry their breakfast and get away as
quickly as possible. She did not smile when the old woman came out to bid
her good-by, and put a detaining hand on the horse's bridle, saying, "You
better stay with me, after all, hadn't you, dearie?"